Jefferson Hagen / MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON — They had to weather a few too many anxious minutes, but the MacEwan Griffins wound up with the expected three points against the winless UNBC Timberwolves in Canada West women's soccer action on Saturday.
A 34th minute strike by Suekiana Choucair proved to be the difference in a 1-0 victory for the Griffins that improves their record to 7-3-3 with one game left to play in the regular season.
Choucair took a pass from Jamie Vriens and drilled a curler into the top right past keeper Liana Toopitsin for her team-leading seventh tally of the season. It's also the talented midfielder's fourth game-winning goal of the campaign.
"Upper right 90 — you can't ask for more," said Griffins head coach Dean Cordeiro. "She does a good job creating separation in midfield and that one was labelled. No keeper in this league's going to make that save.
"Bottom line is we needed someone to lift us. It was good it happened early in the game. We didn't get a second, but we didn't need a second today."
They almost did. UNBC rarely threatened in the contest but they nearly scored in the 84th minute off Tianna Pius' drive from 25 yards away that keeper Emily Burns tipped off the crossbar and then watched the rebound from Jessica Erickson fly over the net.
Had it gone in, it would have been unfortunate for the Griffins, who had plenty of chances to net an insurance marker. Chief among them happened in the 53rd minute when second-half substitute Tehya Davey ripped a blast off the crossbar from 20 yards away.
"We're having some bad luck, but we're getting the three points and we're moving on. That's what's important at this stage," said Cordeiro, whose squad beat UNBC by a comfortable 3-0 margin when they met at Jasper Place Bowl in an August preseason match.
"We know that we'll start getting some of these fortuitous bounces when it matters, in post-season. So if we're saving some of our luck until then I'll take it, but bottom line is we got the job done.
"We're creating a lot of opportunities, we're dominant on set pieces, we're coming ever so close."
UNBC didn't really play the part of a team that's now 0-11-1 on the campaign. Their defence held up, marking the Griffins' strikers well all day and forcing through balls to slide harmlessly into Toopitsin, who made 10 saves. It was a marked improvement from August when they were overwhelmed by the Griffins in a 3-0 score that could have been worse.
"These are our measures. It's my first season through and certainly their growth throughout a season is important," said Timberwolves head coach Neil Sedgwick. "We use these games where you play at the beginning and at the end and see where we've come – all the pieces that we've implemented – to see if they're working.
"MacEwan's a well-organized team and they're going to do well when they go into post-season, so it was a good competitive game for us."
UNBC will close out the season in Calgary on Sunday as they meet Mount Royal at 11 a.m. The Cougars, fighting hard for the final playoff position in the Prairie Division, pulled off an upset over the University of Alberta on Saturday, winning 2-1 to drop the Pandas' record to 8-3-2 ahead of visiting the Griffins on Sunday (12 p.m., Jasper Place Bowl).
Both teams' playoff fate could already be decided before Sunday's game. Alberta can't catch second in the Pacific Division if Fraser Valley beats Lethbridge in a later game on Saturday. And MacEwan would have second in the Prairie Division sewn up if Saskatchewan loses to UBC Okanagan in a game currently ongoing.