AFC Toronto bounced back from their heavy defeat to Ottawa Rapid on the weekend with a 3-2 victory over Vancouver Rise at Swangard Stadium on Wednesday night.
“It was a response we were looking for, and it showed a lot of character to come here playing against a really good team and have a performance like that,” said head coach Marko Milanovic. “It speaks to the character that’s in this room, starting with the captain and the rest of the team as well.
“We’re going to have setbacks – all the good teams have setbacks and losses. It’s how you come back the counts, and today was a major test for that. We passed.”
Goals from captain Emma Regan, Kaylee Hunter, and Nikayla Small invigorated the Toronto attack after the scoreless weekend.
Toronto was quick on the attack in the 3rd minute. Esther Okoronkwo found Emma Regan outside the penalty box, where she hit a floating shot from distance that went over Vancouver goalkeeper Morgan McAslan and into the back of the net to give Toronto the early 1-0 lead.
Through some intricate passing sequences, Toronto doubled its lead just before half-time.
In the 43rd minute, at the top of the box, Victoria Pickett played a give-and-go pass with Nikayla Small to send her into the box. Playing another 1-2 pass with Hunter, she left it for Hunter, who slotted the shot past McAslan to make it 2-0 Toronto.
A minute later, Hunter found Barnett inside the box, but her shot went just wide of the goal. Just before the break, Shaina Ashouri was close to her first goal, as she drove into the box, but her thunderous shot went off the crossbar.
In the 69th minute, Quinn was substituted into the game. On the ensuing corner, Samantha Chang sent the cross into the penalty area, where Mariah Lee headed it past Manner to put Vancouver on the scoresheet.
Minutes later, Toronto answered back with its third goal of the night. Hunter, shielding the ball down the touch line, drove towards the penalty box, where she sent a cross into the box. A half-clearance from Shannon Woeller fell to Small, who took a touch around Woeller and put the bouncing ball between McAslan’s legs to extend Toronto’s lead.
In the 83rd minute, Vancouver was close to a 2nd goal, as Lisa Pechersky sent a shot into the side netting.
Vancouver found a consolation goal from a penalty in the last minute of the match. Taken down in the six-yard box, Quinn stepped up to the spot, where they placed it into the bottom left corner.
On the goals scored tonight, Milanovic said, “Two excellent goals. It obviously seems like we only score those. I would love to score an ugly goal at some point this season.”
Speaking on her development in attack and game tactics, Regan said post-game, “I used to be a defender, wasn’t even a midfielder. I think I’ve added a little bit more attacking to my game. The way that this team is set up formationally and supporting me to go forward, I have a little bit of range to do that… We all work really well together in the midfield and I think it’s just a testament. We have so many goal scorers on this team, we have so many threats, that it’s very hard for teams to defend us.”
On playing in Vancouver, Hunter said post-game, “It was very special. I had a lot of teammates that came to this game, ex-teammates, and it was actually funny when I scored, apparently only one of them stood up… It’s always super special having lots of friends here and family even come to the game.”
AFC Toronto continues its road trip as they travel to Calgary to play Calgary Wilds FC on Saturday, June 14. Vancouver Rise FC will be on a break until Sunday, June 22, when they will return to face Montreal Roses FC.
