RECAP: Ottawa powers to season opening 5-0 win over Trent

With Saturday afternoon's 5-0 win over Trent, the Gee-Gees women's soccer team put an exclamation point on their 500^th match. The win pushes the Gee-Gees program to 365-66-69 all-time since the program's inception in 1994. 

For what was eventually a lopsided affair, it was a relatively quiet first half, with Nibo Dlamini opening the scoring in the 18^th minute and the Gee-Gees not adding to their tally until the 41^st minute. Credited as an own goal, the second score was orchestrated by an outstanding effort by Cassandra Provost, firing a shot on net that deflected into the net.

The second half flood gates opened for the Ottawa offence, Sabrina Mangiaracina scored in her first career game in Garnet and Grey, striking home a penalty kick in the 66^th minute. Senior forward Allana Oriente scored her first of the season on a signature long strike that found twine to put the Gee-Gees up by four in the 77^th minute. 

With a second Oriente goal called offside, Ottawa would score their fifth and final goal of the afternoon on a strike by Eva Bouity, a career-first for the second-year Montreal native.

Defensively, the play though the midfield and back line was superb, contributing to a shared clean sheet for Ottawa keepers Juliann Lacasse and Cassidy Joslin, who faced no shots on-net in the win.

"We had a good training camp and think we're on the right track to have a really strong season," said third-year midfielder Katie Brzozowski. "It's important to start the season off with a win and keep our goal of not conceding any goals, so I think it's just going to keep getting better."

Matt Anthony Field was alive with energy with students on campus and a capacity crowd on-hand to cheer the team on. Four newcomers had the chance to log their Gee-Gees debuts and contribute to the win.

"It was a fantastic crowd, it was really great to see everyone out today," said head coach Steve Johnson. "It was great for us to get a chance to evaluate our new players in different situations."

Ottawa will take to the road next weekend for key matchups Toronto on Friday at Varsity Stadium (7 p.m.) and Sunday at TMU (1 p.m.) both games will be streaming live on OUA.tv.