Kunkel’s goal not enough

It was a fair question.

If the University of Manitoba Bisons women’s soccer team had to play the biggest game of the year without suspended star striker, Bianca Cavalcanti, where would their offence come from?

Jenna Kunkel had the answer in the 34th minute at IG Field Saturday night.

The second-year West Kildonan product set up at the top of the box and directed a powerful shot behind Regina goalkeeper Allyson Ford.

It was Kunkel’s fourth goal of the season and under ordinary circumstances, it would have stood up to give the Bisons victory over the Cougars in the Canada West Prairie Division’s fourth-vs.-fifth place play-in game.

But the visitors had other ideas.

First, Peyton Enns calmly slotted a penalty kick behind Bisons goalkeeper Karina Bagi in the 66th minute and the tide began to turn with Regina starting to dominate possession.

In the 89th minute, Regina’s Makenna Sackmann struck the crossbar with a shot and the ball rolled away harmlessly. But Manitoba, hosting the first home playoff game in program history, had only avoided catastrophe temporarily.

Three minutes into added time and just moments before the final whistle, Sackmann corralled Taylor Bubnick’s corner kick and gave the Cougars a 2-1 triumph. The inexperienced Bisons were devastated.

“The team is still very young and that’s something that shows when it becomes hectic,” said Bisons head coach Vanessa Martinez Lagunas. “It becomes hectic and and instead of playing our game, they react rather than be proactive in dictating the play and that’s what we need to improve. We need to get a lot better at that and that’s something we’ll spend a lot of time on in the preparation period.”

The result sent the Cougars through to next weekend’s Canada West quarter-final match with the UBC Thunderbirds, the Pacific Division’s top-seeded squad.

The Thunderbirds went 13-1 during the regular season.

“Yeah, it sucks,” said Bagi, Manitoba’s player of the game after an 10-save performance. “We all kind of had our hopes set on playing again next weekend. Last time we played (Regina), we didn’t really have the outcome that we wanted and it’s kind of unfortunate because they knocked us out of playoffs last year, too.”

Cavalcanti, who was red-carded for an altercation during the handshake line following a 2-0 loss to Mount Royal in last Sunday’s regular-season finale, had a team-leading nine goals and four assists in 12 regular-season games this season.

“We definitely did miss her but we did create chances with the team,” said Bagi. “We knew that since she wasn’t there that we kind of have to give an extra push, which kind of showed. We did our best and I’m really proud of the room.”

Added Martinez Lagunas: “Jenna stepped up. That was a beautiful goal… We scored the goal, we had the game in control and again after the PK call, everything went downhill.”

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