LAVAL WOMEN – STUNNING MORE THAN THE LION’S SHARE

The Lions will be remembered as the sole female underdog squad to rise well above the fray during the 2018 winter playoff campaign.

“We were a team that started at the bottom of the pack,” explains captain Alessandra Scarpone, whose girls began the season with only three wins in their first nine games. “So we had to climb our way back up to make it to the playoffs.”

Riding a seven-game unbeaten streak into the postseason, the fifth-seed Lions would eventually knock out three of the better teams in the FC2 Division without surrendering more than one goal in the process, relying on a rock solid defensive unit and keeper Vanessa Perazzelli. In that sense, the 1-0 shutout victory over heavy favourites Those Girls was really just the icing on the cake. “Luckily our top goal scorer Adriana Cignola scored the winning goal. Then we just defended and kept them out of our zone.”

The rest of the playoff matches were almost sorely predictable by comparison.

Top-seed Faucons beat the Bulldogs 2-1 to round off a fairly picture-perfect season, while Fireball shut out FC Division leading Les Braves 1-0 on Gabrielle Charbonneau-Laplante’s winning goal.

In the FB1 Division, FC Repentigny blanked top dogs Chelsea with a 2-0 win, the Red Devils absolutely crushed Dynastie FC 6-0 in the FB2 finals and FC1 powerhouse Blitzz shocked nobody but the score sheet by blanking Blue Sky 3-0.

Have a good soccer story, pic or video to share with us this winter? You can email me, fire off a Tweet or simply follow us on Facebook and Instagram.