Renegades 2 Victoria 1
EDMONTON — That music playing in the back ground, it’s coming from the grand piano the Red Deer Renegades just tossed off their backs.
After coming painfully close so many times this Alberta Major Women’s Soccer League season, the Renegades finally won a match, beating second-place Edmonton Victoria 2-1 on Saturday.
“You could see the jubilation in the girls, they wanted to get out of this funk,” said Renegades coach Vic Michalchuk.
“We’ve had four or five games where we lost by one goal and because of injuries and players not being here we haven’t been able to put it together all year long.”
The hero for the Renegades was local Heather Lund who has been one of the team’s few consistent offensive threats all season. She scored both goals to put Red Deer up 2-0 early in the second half and then it was just a matter of holding on for the win.
Both goals were scored on breakaways, the first at the 38-minute mark, but the second at the 60-minute mark was a thing of beauty as Lund finished off a nice play that started with a throw out from goalie Lindsey Kitsch to a defender that was chipped up to mid-fielder Gina Hisey-Brown. Hisey-Brown then sent Lund in all alone with a terrific pass.
But it wasn’t all smooth sailing.
Victoria pulled within one goal at the 77-minute mark on a perfectly placed shot hit the cross bar then the post and went in. After the season the Renegades have had, it was only natural to start thinking the worst.
“You could see a few girls tighten up, then somebody said ‘Just relax and slow down. Don’t panic,’” said Michalchuk. “The experienced girls started to take charge.
“But you could see it, suddenly it was like ‘Oh boy, here it comes.’”
The Renegades (1-11-1) will try to finish their season on a roll today when they host the Calgary Jaguars (2-8-2) at Great Chief Park at noon.
“I think we’re going to win the game (Sunday),” said Michalchuk. “We’re feeling confident and everybody’s here and they’re playing for each other.”
jaldrich@www.reddeeradvocate.com