The Niagara Knights women's soccer program lost their cross division qualifier Sunday, October 22nd to the Seneca Sting 6-2. With the loss, the Knights do not qualify for the OCAA championship, putting an end to their 2017-18 season.
the Knights finish their regular season with a 4-4-2 record, good enough for 4th place in the OCAA west division standings.
After Seneca's four goals in the first half, the Knights battled back with second half goals from 3rd year midfielder/forward Bethany Langendoen (St. Catharines, Ont.) and second year midfielder Renee LaFrance (Burlington, Ont.). Even with Knights' offensive spark in the half, the women could not muster enough offence to get themselves back into the match.
After keeper Alexis Hebert (Waterdown, Ont.) was knocked out of the game by a careless tackle in the 25th minute, the Knights were forced to put in 3rd string keeper Kaylee Boulley (Chatham, Ont.) for the remainder of the game. Prior to Sunday's appearance in net, Boulley's only experience as a keeper came this season when she was forced to start a game against Lambton, which resulted in a 2-1 victory for the Knights.
After the game, head coach Rob Lalama was disappointed in the result, but was happy with his program's overall performance throughout the season. "Despite our disappointment in the loss I felt the season was a success. We are a young team that will continue to improve. We will have the bulk of our roster back and we will continue to build the program."
The Knights will now have another off season to prepare for the challenge that lies ahead with the 2018-19 OCAA season