Regina rookie
Natalia McCullough's late goal stood as the game-winning strike on Saturday afternoon as the Regina Cougars took a 3-2 road victory over Mount Royal in Calgary.
With the score tied and just four minutes to go until injury time,
Kyra Vibert got the ball in the right side of the box and turned and rifled a shot that beat Mount Royal's keeper but rang off the right post. But McCullough was right there to gather the rebound and tucked it into a wide-open cage for her first goal as a Cougar.
"It was a hotly contested match between two teams that were both desperate to win," Cougars head coach
Bob Maltman said. "We are very pleased with the way in which our team responded to going down a goal to generate some good opportunities and quality goals. While we need to tidy up some aspects of our play to reduce the opposition's chances to score, the fight and mentality demonstrated by the full squad was great to see."
Taylor Bubnick and
Olivia Gables scored the other two goals for Regina. Bubnick's goal came from the penalty spot in the 38th minute after
Kirsten Finley was fouled in the box, while Gables scored in the 71st minute after getting a nice ball from
Cassie Longmuir and scoring after taking on a pair of MRU defenders. Longmuir also made an impact on McCullough's goal, as she was the one who sent in the initial pass to Vibert.
Kaitlyn Clarke and Athena Fourlas both scored for Mount Royal. Both of those strikes put MRU in the lead, but both times the U of R responded with a goal of its own.
The win improves Regina's record to 3-4-2 on the season as the fifth-place Cougars pull to within two points of fourth-place Manitoba, which lost to Alberta on Saturday.
The Cougars will finish off the road trip on Sunday with a noon game at Lethbridge.
