Waterloo 4-0 UPEI: Hosts Run Riot on Opening Night at the U SPORTS Championship
Nine minutes. That’s all it took for the home crowd to find its voice.
Waterloo captain Sydney Blackburn smashed in the opener at Warrior Field on Thursday night, and from there the hosts never let UPEI breathe. Two more before half-time, another early in the third quarter, and a 4-0 win that sets the tone for the whole weekend. If anyone came to Waterloo wondering whether the hosts would handle the pressure of playing nationals on their own turf, that question lasted nine minutes.
The Blackburn twins both got on the scoresheet, along with Jalen Duffy and Tiffany Binkle. Four different scorers, four goals, and a clean sheet for Grace Miller in the Waterloo goal. That’s the kind of opening night coaches dream about.
UPEI weren’t short of effort. The Panthers won five penalty corners and kept coming, with captain Charlotte Thompson and U SPORTS all-Canadian Kayla Batchilder doing their best to drag them back into it. But five corners, no goals. And at the other end, Bria Mathews faced a barrage in the UPEI goal and kept most of it out. Most of it. The attack was too much, especially through the middle of the game.
Duffy, a fifth-year who has played in four straight U SPORTS nationals, three of them on the ice with Waterloo’s women’s hockey team, said the home field made a difference. She talked about communication and building on the first goal. Fair enough. But the bigger story is simpler than that: Waterloo looked like a team that belongs at this level, and UPEI looked like a team that had a long night ahead of it.
Toronto and UBC already set the tone. The opener earlier in the day had already delivered. Toronto and UBC, the OUA champions against the best of the west, finished 1-1 in a game that swung both ways. Vanessa Marques buried a penalty stroke just minutes in to give Toronto the lead, and Amy Stelling answered for UBC before the end of the first quarter, flicking one up and over Mary Yang.
UBC had the better of the second half, Toronto threatened on the break, and neither side could find a winner. A draw that leaves everything open. Toronto captain Maggie Mullins, named U SPORTS Player of the Year the night before, led from the front again. She hadn’t played UBC in four years at Toronto. Scoring inside the opening minutes, she said, showed her side can compete with anyone here.
Toronto face UPEI at 4 p.m. EST on Friday, and that’s a big one for the Panthers. Lose that and the weekend gets very short, very fast. Then the night game: Waterloo against UBC at 6:30 p.m. EST. The hosts against the Canada West champions, under lights, with the crowd behind them. That’s the game of the round so far.
Saturday brings Waterloo against Toronto at 2 p.m. and UPEI against UBC at 4:30 p.m. The bronze medal match is Sunday at noon, the gold at 2:30 p.m. EST. Every game streams on CBC Gem and the CBC Sports YouTube channel.
Waterloo have made their statement. Now they have to back it up against the two strongest teams in the field, back to back.
