De Armond hat-trick leads Canadian women to 4-0 win in Junior Pan Am opener
PHOTO: Victoria, British Columbia’s Alexis de Armond in Santiago, Chile in January 2016 (By: Lorena Angus)
Canada’s Junior Women’s National Team opened the 2016 Junior Women’s Pan American Championship with a convincing win over Mexico Thursday in Trinidad and Tobago.
Defender Alexis de Armond led the way scoring three goals and Jaslan Stirling added another en route to the 4-0 victory.
With both teams playing their first games of the tournament, the game started tentatively, but after a few minutes of acclimatization, the Canadians began to put on the pressure.
Lindsay Cole had a couple of chances early but couldn’t get a stick on the ball in the goalmouth. Hannah Eborall fired the first shot on goal after a quick run to the top of the circle, but was stopped by the Mexican keeper Montserrat Iguanzo.
Canada’s keeper Lauren Logush was then forced to make her best play of the game, as the Mexicans found some open space and headed towards the Canadian goal. Logush’s quick decision to make a sliding challenge thwarted the chance and kept the game scoreless.
It wasn’t until late in first half when the Canadians finally broke through.
In the 26th minute, on Canada’s second penalty corner of the match, de Armond’s hard, low sweep took a deflection off the Mexican first runner and ended up in the top corner of the net.
Canada took the 1-0 lead into the half.
In the second half, Canada added to its lead when Shannon Pereira made a piercing run down the right sideline and made her way into the circle and flipped a pass to Stirling who quickly put it by Iguanzo in the 50th minute.
Canada never looked back and continued to pour on the pressure as the game went on.
De Armond added her second on another penalty corner sweep in the 60th minute and completed the hat-trick in the 64th with a solo dash that was capped off with a backhand shot that beat the keeper low to the left.
Canada will face its North American rival, the United States, in both teams’ second match of the tournament on Saturday (11:00am PT/2:00pm PT). The game can be watched live here.
