Electric City women win, men lose on road
New team has its men’s home opener against Windsor TFC on Saturday at Fleming
Electric City FC’s men are coming home still in search of their first victory.
The first-year club learned it’s not going to romp through League1 Ontario’s Premier Division, suffering the first loss in club history Saturday night at Downsview Park. The North Toronto Nitros won 2-1 on a goal in the 81st minute that was sealed when ECFC’s Jordan Brown missed a penalty kick in the 94th minute.
Meanwhile, ECFC’s women’s team flexed its muscles, improving to 2-0 with a 5-0 win over Pickering FC in Pickering Saturday night.
The next time the men take to the pitch it will be for their long-awaited home opener. ECFC hosts Windsor TFC on Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Fleming Sports Complex.
After tying defending champion Guelph FC 0-0 in their opening game, men’s coach Jamie Sherwood said their goal was to come into their home opener with an unbeaten record.
“We’re very disappointed,” said Sherwood. “We fell well short of the standard we produced in our previous fixture against Guelph.”
North Toronto played a defensive style and his club didn’t handle it well, he said.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t show the patience we needed to to create the gaps and spaces we needed (against) a well-drilled, organized and very defensive team,” he said. “Our tempo in possession wasn’t quick enough. The use of the ball to find the spaces in the areas we needed to find the spaces wasn’t quick enough or direct enough.”
Sherwood said they’ll regroup at training on Monday to prepare for their home debut.
“Which is our opportunity to show Peterborough what we’re about,” he said. “There is an opportunity to show who Electric City are because tonight’s performance definitely isn’t a representation of the group of players we have and the group of staff and the club we want to be.
“We’re disappointed but we’ll pull our socks up.”
Connor Wilson scored the first ECFC men’s goal 34 minutes into the game, making it 1-0. Abdi Zakaria tied it and Justin Santos netted the winner as the Nitros improved to 2-0.
The women’s side blew open a close game with four second-half goals behind Mykaela Volpe’s shutout goalkeeping.
Five different women hit the scoresheet with Holy O’Neill and Kayla
McQueen scoring their second in as many games, along with Brynn Jurus, Aysia King and Sona Makulova.
“We could have put the game away in the first half, we just weren’t putting our chances in the back of the net,” said women’s head coach Randy Ribeiro. “The girls were persistent and continued to play for the full 90 minutes and were rewarded.”
Five more signed players joined the lineup this week, adding to the club’s depth.
Ribeiro said three women remain to join the team.
“All five coming in made a difference. We also included some of the FC Durham reserve girls again and they came in and did a fantastic job,” he said.
Jurus, a Hamilton native, was one of the women making her ECFC debut.
“It took us a little while to get into it,” said Jurus, “but once we started learning how to play with each other and get the flow of things, we were able to start connecting passes and get things going.”
She is excited about the team’s potential.
“I think we have a lot of potential. I think once we start practising more, we only had one practice together before this game, and you start to learn how each other plays and when to pass the ball I think we can be a really good team and have a really good season,” said Jurus.
The women have one more road match Friday in Whitby against Darby FC before their home opener May 14 against Oakville’s Blue Devils at Fleming.
‘‘ There is an opportunity to show who Electric City are.
JAMIE SHERWOOD ELECTRIC CITY FC MEN’S COACH