Saturday July 12, 2014 W-League--Ottawa Fury vs Toronto Lady Lynx result (from Fury website)
Fury Rolls in Regular Season Finale Complete undefeated season, prepare for playoffs W-League Match Report Saturday, July 12, 2014 OTTAWA, Ont. - The Ottawa Fury put an exclamation point on their undefeated regular season Saturday, defeating the Toronto Lady Lynx 8-0 to finish 11-0-1 and claim the Central Conference regular season crown. The Fury will face the winner of the conference play-in game between K-W United and Laval, with a spot at the 2014 W-League Championship at stake. Facing the only team that had taken points from it during the regular season, Dom Oliveri's side came out strong and unrelenting to finish the regular season with a goal difference of +30. The Lady Lynx began the afternoon aggressively, attacking from the opening kickoff and testing Ottawa goalkeeper Maryse Bard-Martel multiple times in the opening 10 minutes. The Lynx peaked offensively in the 13th minute when Heather Lund rattled the crossbar on a breakaway, with the ball staying out. Had Lund scored, Saturday's game could have unfolded very differently. Only two minutes later, Ottawa took a crucial lead through Christabel Oduro. After an initlal shot was parried well by Toronto keeper Carissa Miller, Oduro's blast tipped off of a Toronto defender and past the outstretched hands of Miller, killing the momentum Toronto had started with. Despite a push-back from Toronto, the Fury doubled their lead in the 25th minute. Continuing with the theme of well-worked goals, W-League Team of the Week member Teresa Rynier cut past a Toronto defender before smashing a shot past Miller from outside the 18-yard box. Just four minutes later, Oduro picked up her second of the game and the party was officially in full swing. Receiving the ball on the left flank, the University of Memphis standout smashed a shot which beat Miller at the far post, making it 3-0. Another four minutes later Lauren Hughes piled on for Ottawa. Hughes controlled an excellent cross from Bryanna McCarthy before beating a defender and burying a shot inside the far post. Courtney Raetzman continued the wave of Fury scoring just before halftime, scoring what might just have been the goal of the season. Picking the ball up just inside the Toronto half, Raetzman wove her way through three Lynx defenders before calmly finishing past Miller. Not only did Raetzman score a highlight-reel goal, she went into the Fury FC record book scoring the 600th goal in club history! With memories of their only dropped points of the year, a 1-1 draw in Toronto, fresh in their minds, Ottawa pressed even harder in the second half. The Lynx replaced their starting goalkeeper, Miller, with backup Patricia Koutoulas - the substitution marked Koutoulas' first minutes of the season. The second half started the way the first half finished, with Ottawa pressing. Raetzman picked up her second of the match in the 52nd, finishing off a Oduro cross, before completing an impressive natural hat trick in the 62nd minute as she finished off her own rebound. Lauren Hughes finished the scoring for Ottawa, heading home a cross in the 64th minute to make it 8-0. "It's obviously a good win for us, but I felt there were things that still need to be improved. It's about improving, it's about building and this is a huge win for us in that respect," Ottawa Head Coach Dom Oliveri said. "We want this to be a message to everyone else in our conference that this is a difficult place to play, and I think we established that today." The W-League player of the game was Ottawa's Courtney Raetzman. The University of Kentucky midfielder scored a natural hat trick which put the match out of reach, and was a force in the midfield. "Courtney was far and away the best player on the pitch today," Oliveri said. "Three goals, some of them beauties, there's not much else you can say about that performance other than MVP." Ottawa will now have eight days off before they host the Central Conference Final next Saturday (July 19) at the Algonquin Soccer Complex at 3 p.m., entertaining either K-W United or the Laval Comets, who will battle midweek in the No. 2 vs. No. 3 play-in game. While the club is happy with the undefeated campaign, Oliveri parted ways with media saying, "At this club, we're never completely satisfied until we've won a W-League championship. That's what we're focused on.".
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