The No. 2 nationally-ranked York University Lions women's soccer team edged out a 1-0 victory over the No. 6 Western Mustangs at York Stadium on Sunday afternoon (Oct. 18).
           
The Lions have won all of their games except for one tie on the year (13-0-1), and it was against the Mustangs back in September. And with another match-up of nationally-ranked teams, the Lions were eager to redeem themselves with a win.  
 
The first half saw an extremely aggressive contest in the middle third of the field as both teams struggled to cleanly get past the last lines of defence. The teams were neck and neck to close off the first 45 minutes.   
 
Heading into the second half, the Lions seemed to have found new life, showing a lot of enthusiasm and ambition going forward. Their first opportunity arose in the 53^rd minute when Sarah Wong (Scarborough, Ont.) delivered a corner kick onto the head of Taylor Lyons (Brampton, Ont.), who nailed the ball into the back of the net, but the goal was disallowed from a Lions' foul on the goalkeeper.
 
However, just a few minutes later, a similar corner kick opportunity developed and Nour Ghoneim (Aurora, Ont.) made no mistake in giving the Lions a 1-0 lead. Meeting the ball off of Wong's second corner kick of the game, Ghoneim climbed on top of a Mustang defender to get her 11^th goal of the season.
 
As the half continued the momentum shifted and the Lions found themselves on the back foot, relying on their back line to keep them in the game. Luckily, Lions keeper Taylor Grant (Brampton, Ont.) and her defenders kept the Mustangs at bay with smart defensive play. Overall, Western had six shots on target and Grant saved all of them. She was a key component in the Lions' success of holding the lead.  
 
Next week the Lions plan to finish off the regular season strong with back-to-back games against the winless Algoma Thunderbirds on Saturday and Sunday (Oct. 24-25). Kick-off will be at 1pm on both days.