Emily Moore the stuff of Legends
Esquimalt-born goalkeeper’s great saves propel UBC to victory over UVic rivals
It was a game of legendary proportions, and when the final whistle had blown to end the Canada West women’s soccer clash between the University of Victoria Vikes and UBC Thunderbirds at Centennial Stadium, it was the visitors who stole the show and the lone Victoria-born T-Bird who stood tallest.
Esquimalt-born Emily Moore made two outstanding saves to propel her UBC squad to a seasonopening 1-0 victory on a sunny Saturday afternoon at UVic, giving the Thunderbirds the first two points of the inaugural Legends Cup competition between the two rival schools.
“That was a lot of fun,” said Moore, the six-foot-tall goalkeeper who’s in her third year at UBC after graduating from Esquimalt Secondary.
“I love coming back here and playing on this amazing field at UVic. I played on it a lot when I was younger and to come back here and get a big win for the team is just great.”
Moore, studying visual arts at UBC, came up through the Vancouver Island Wave program and had plenty of family and friends in attendance and on the opposite side of the pitch.
“Lots of family here and friends from the Wave, who I played with, and I played for [Vikes assistant coach] Dave [Dew] for a few years, so it’s always nice to come back over here and see everyone.”
Moore didn’t have a lot of work in a game that was mostly a midfield battle, but when called upon in the second half she was equal to the task.
After UBC opened the scoring in the 77th minute when Danielle Steer drove home a nice feed from teammate Margaret Hadley, the Vikes’ offence finally started to show signs of life.
Second-half substitute Avneet Rai hammered a shot from 20-yards out that a diving Moore just got a hand on and it rang off the inside of the post.
“Oh man, I thought that was going post and in, but fortunately the post was my friend on that one,” Moore said.
And in the injury time, Rai again was left open at the top of the box and again drilled a high shot, but Moore was there to tip it over the bar.
As if Moore needed any added pressure, she was staring across the field at the best in the conference in Puck Louwes. The First Team All-Canadian from a season ago, Louwes had to make several first-half saves to keep it scoreless at the break.
“I grew up training with Puck here and we’re good friends, so it’s always good fun playing against her,” Moore said. “Last year, we lost 1-0 so it was nice to get one back this time around.”
Vikes coach Tracy David wasn’t at all pleased with her team’s execution in a game that had added importance because of the Legends Cup competition. UBC gains the first two points in the sidebar competition that will include all competitions between the two schools with the athletic director from the losing school having to present the trophy to the winning school at their yearend awards banquet.
“This is such a tough, tough conference this year so when we’re at home, we need to get points so this is a tough one to take,” said David, whose club finished fifth at the national championship tournament last year.
“We weren’t firing on all cylinders. We were too far away from our opponent on defence to exert any significant pressure and offensively we just didn’t execute our game plan, although it was a little better in the second half. So we have a lot of work to do, but it’s early.”
The Vikes now hit the road for a pair of games next weekend, visiting Trinity Western University in Langley on Friday and then Fraser Valley in Abbotsford on Saturday.
The UVic men, coming off a 7-1 loss to Trinity Western on Friday night, visit Fraser Valley this afternoon.