The York University Lions field hockey team split a pair of games on Sunday (Sept. 27) at York Stadium. The Lions were defeated in the morning by the Toronto Varsity Blues by a score of 5-0, but caught fire in the second game in shutting out the Queen's Gaels 4-0.

 

Against Queen's, the Lions attacked the Gaels defence and totalled four unanswered scores. York dominated the possession of the ball and it proved to pay dividends as just 11 minutes in, they marched down the field and Rachel Modestino (Oakville, Ont.) buried a rebound that was initially saved by Queen's goalkeeper Amanda Thoo.
 
York wasn't finished there, as 10 minutes later Ravneet Kalkat (Mississauga, Ont.) crashed the Gaels net and scored the second tally of the game. After the Kalkat goal the momentum was consumed by the Lions, leading to a first half that had them relentless in their pursuit to put the game out of reach.
 
The second half was the same story as the Lions offence moved the ball around and eventually broke the Gaels defence, resulting in a Michelle Per (Port Moody, Ont.) goal in the 62^nd minute. Ninety seconds later, Mikhaela Slavin (Pickering, Ont.) slid through a cluster of Gaels and found the loose ball and chipped in the fourth goal for the Lions.
 
Earlier in the day, the Lions came roaring out of the gates in the early stages of the match against the Varsity Blues. Per lifted a beautiful pass over the heads of the Blues defenders and onto the stick of Christina DeFranco (Markham, Ont.), but the Lions couldn't capitalize on the great play.
 
The Varsity Blues put the first goal on the board at the midway point of the first half when Alison Lee finished a tic-tack-toe play. The Varsity Blues seemed to be fuelled by the Lee tally as they were on the attack once again but were robbed by the right toe of York goalkeeper Shanelle Fernando (Markham, Ont.).
 
Soon after the big save by Fernando, Toronto's Amanda Woodcroft managed to stick handle through a pack of Lions and beat Fernando at the 20-minute mark to make the score 2-0. Twelve minutes after the second goal, Tegan Stairs of the Varsity Blues found the ball in a mad scramble in front of the Lion net and potted the third score.
 
The majority of the first half of the game was played on the Lions half of the field, and Toronto's Nicole Woodcroft hammered a shot by the York defence that clapped the back of the net which ended the first half of scoring at 4-0.
 
The second half showcased a more balanced attack from both the Lions and Varsity Blues and most of the action was played at mid-field. After both teams exchanged multiple attempts to push the ball down field, the Varsity Blues broke through the Lion zone and Lauren Sudac finished off the drive with the final goal of the game.
 
The Lions are now 2-3 on the season and will look to even their record on Saturday (Oct. 3) when they travel to London, Ont., to take on the Western Mustangs at 9am and the Waterloo Warriors at 2:15pm.