Marisa Mendonca led the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack to a 1-0 win over the UBC-O Heat in Canada West soccer action on Oct. 7.
Mendonca, a third-year player from the Pinnacles Football Club, netted the winner on an innocent play after Sasha Sirianni passed her the ball and she shot from about 40 yards going high left side as the play was misplayed by Heat keeper Francesca Balletta. It was Mendonca’s second goal in as many matches and second of the year.
“This was a giant victory in a couple of ways. We are still trying to chase down that sixth playoff spot. We have seven points,” said WolfPack coach Kelly Shantz. “With a little bit of luck in this. Maybe UNBC has a tough weekend and maybe we are in a tie for sixth spot with four games left in the season. We want to have short term goals. We are a team that is building and that is struggling. Putting up a couple of “W’s”is the way. It is one thing to talk about getting better, but getting rewarded like we did today—for gritty, scratchy, fight it out, whatever it took to get a win. The girls get that feeling too that it is never really over, you are never really out of it if you work hard. That was a good lesson today.”
The WolfPack now have two wins seven losses and a draw.