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OTTAWA FURY & W LEAGUE:

OTTAWA ADVANCE TO PLAY NEW JERSEY WILDCATS IN EASTERN CONFERENCE FINAL 29th July 2006

The Ottawa Fury took another step toward reaching the W-League championship finals for the fourth time in a row last night when they defeated the Western Massachusetts Pioneers 3-0 in Eastern Conference semi-final play at Mercer County Community College in West Windsor, New Jersey. Amy Vermeulen, Leah Robinson, and Rhian Wilkinson scored the goals for the Fury, who held an 18-4 advantage in shots. Taryn Swiatek needed just one save to record the shutout in goal.

The Fury dominated play in the first half, keeping possession for long periods of time, but couldn’t turn this into an advantage on the scoreboard. They held a 8-0 advantage in shots, but couldn’t convert this domination into goals. Vermeulen, the scoring star from Wednesday’s 3-2 victory over Toronto in the preliminary round, had two early chances heading wide left from a Diana Matheson corner kick in the ninth minute before going wide left from distance in the 15th minute.

Rhian Wilkinson created the best two chances for the Fury in the opening 45 minutes. Her cross from the right side was headed off the crossbar by Zoe Avner in the 17th minute. Three minutes later, Wilkinson cut along the endline and found Vermeulen wide open in front but Western Mass keeper Alyssa Naeher punched away her chance from point-blank range after she settled the cross eight yards out from goal.

The first good chance of the second half for the Fury came in the 57th minute when Rhian Wilkinson’s cross from the right side found Vermeulen at the back post, but her point-blank volley went right into the stomach of Naeher and she held the rebound as Vermeulen poked away at the ball.

Ottawa was fortunate to finally break through in the 63rd minute thanks to a foul on substitute Stacey Stocco in the box. Margaret Tietjen tripped up Stocco just inside the top right corner of the box to earn the penalty kick. It was actually a pretty funny call because we were playing on a ield with football lines on it, so the ref did not even realize that he had called one. Kelly Parker had to point out the fact he had called a foul inside the area. Before this, he thought the kick was from just outside. Amy Vermeulen slotted the ball into the lower right side of the goal for the 1-0 lead.

Ottawa poured it on from there. Leah Robinson scored the next goal at the 72nd minute mark, when Amy crossed the ball through the area. Rhian says, "I thought it was intended for me, as I was just ahead of Leah. I was yelling "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" as I thought the opportunity had gone to waste, curling in far nehond me. But, there was Leah to slot it home under the keeper, so my "NOOOOOOOO!" quickly turned to something a little more joyful."

Rhian scored the final goal one minute later, dribbling around the goalkeeper, when Stacey Stocco put the ball diagonally through the Western Mass back line for her to run onto. This happened at about the half way line, so Rhian realized she was on a breakaway. This was on one of the longest fields the Fury have played on this season. By the time Rhian reached the net she says she was utterly exhausted, but managed to score. After the score she turned around to celebrate, only to find her teammates waiting at the halfway line. "Now that is confidence in my abilities!" says Rhian, "Or perhaps they were just too tired to run...I prefer the first explanation."

Western Mass had their best chance in the 81st minute when Swiatek stuffed Bianca D’Agostino on a breakaway.

In the Eastern final Ottawa Fury will play their perennial rival and 2005 W-League champion, the New Jersey Wildcats. The match will be a rematch of the 2005 W-League championship final on Sunday, kick off 5:00 PM. The winner will advance to the W-League championship finals to be hosted by the Vancouver Whitecaps next weekend.