The Vancouver Rise may have started slow, but they rebounded to a 2-1 win over Halifax Tides, relegating the visitors to a five-game winless streak to begin their inaugural NSL campaign.
Late first-half goals from Lisa Pechersky and Mariah Lee sealed the win for the home side.
It was the Rise’s second win against the Tides, the first one coming at the beginning of the month on May 5.
“I’m just happy with our performance today,” Rise head coach Anja Heiner-Møller said. “We struggled in the beginning, and Halifax played a good first half.”
Even though the Rise were backed by another near sellout crowd at Swangaard Stadium, it was the Tides who hit first.
Sydney Kennedy, a thorn in the side of Rise’s right-back Jaylyn Wright from the beginning of the match, cut inside and bodied her way into the 6-yard box. Her cutback found Saorla Miller near the penalty spot.
Miller’s shot caught Morgan McAslan out of position and gave the visitors the early lead.
Play heavily favoured the Tides in the first quarter of the match, but the Rise found a way back in.
They finally got their first-ever goal from open play in the 40th minute. Pechersky found herself in behind Tides goalkeeper Anika Toth as Holly Ward lobbed the ball over. All alone, Pechersky had the easy tap-in to tie the match late in the first half.
But they were not done. Pechersky played provider for the second goal, a buzzer-beater in the 45th minute.
The Rise forward’s cross connected with Lee in the 6-yard box. Lee’s header caught Toth going the wrong way and gave Rise the one-goal lead at the half.
“We have struggled before, coming from behind like that. What we found out as a team is we need to go back to basics. And I think the team gathering after going down one-nil, that’s been some of the things that we’re talking about,” Heiner-Møller said.
The second half brought a change for the Rise as Jaylyn Wright exited the pitch in favour of Jessica De Filippo. It was an aggressive change for Heiner-Møller , who wanted to ensure her players did not sit back.
The Tides were desperate for their first win and continued to push hard. Often physical, referee Salma Flores-Derochers had to dig into her pocket on a couple of occasions to hand out yellow cards to the visitors.
However, the Rise would hold on for the win and move themselves into a tie for first place in the NSL with Montreal Roses.
“I just like the mindset of this team,” Heiner-Møller said.
Growing as a team
This match represented the first time the Rise had played a club in the league for the second time. It was a moment for Heiner-Moeller to appraise her players, state how far they have come and acknowledge what they still need to do.
“We had to find our [way] back to our structure and all these things we worked on,” Heiner-Møller said.
One significant area of concern prior to this match was the lack of goals from open play. In the previous five matches, the Rise had scored four times: twice from the penalty spot and twice from corners.
“We have definitely focused on that,” the head coach said about the two goals tonight. “The last couple weeks more than we have done previously. We talked about it, how we can create bigger chances, not just chances, but bigger chances.
Lee reiterated that the work that had been done during the last training sessions contributed to the production tonight.
“We’ve also been working on crossing and finishing and far post,” she said.
Her goal tonight was a beneficiary of that hard work, she said.
“Once we got it wide, I just got to get in the box. And then Lisa [Pechersky] served up a ball on a platter for me. And so, those ones are easy money,” Lee said.
Next up
It’s a short break for the Rise as they get set to play Calgary Wild on Saturday, May 24.
Kick off is at 4 p.m.
