USL News Release

 

Wednesday, July 5, 2006

 

TAMPA, FL – United Soccer Leagues announced Wednesday its W-League and Premier Development League Teams of the Week for the 11th week of the season, honoring Ottawa’s Marie-Eve Nault and Boulder’s John Cunliffe as the Players of the Week, respectively.

The Ottawa Fury staked their claim as the top team from the Northern Division with wins over fellow contenders Toronto and Laval, who both entered the week unbeaten. The Fury posted a pair of 2-1 wins over the twosome to hand them their first losses of the year, leaving all three with one defeat as they enter the final stretch of the season.

The Fury opened the week Wednesday in Laval against the 4-0-2 expansion Comets in the first-ever meeting between the two. Ottawa got on the board seven minutes in on a goal from Diana Matheson. Virginie Jacques was able to get the Comets on level terms in the 57th only to see Matheson find Kelly Parker for the winner in the 73rd.

In the first meeting between the two this season, the Fury rallied from a fourth minute Deana Everrett strike for visiting Toronto. Leah Robinson converted a penalty in the 10th minute and Annie Hamel tallied the winner nine minutes later as the Fury kept the 5-0-1 Lynx off the board.

The Boulder Rapids Reserve established themselves as the frontrunners in the Heartland Division with their second win over the defending PDL champion Des Moines Menace. The Rapids Reserve handed the Menace a crushing 5-2 loss at home behind a hat-trick from John Cunliffe.

Cunliffe, who scored the opening two goals in a 4-3 win in Boulder over the Menace two weeks prior and the lone goal in a 2-1 loss at Des Moines early in the season, gave the visitors a 2-0 lead three minutes before the break Saturday. Four minutes into the second frame, he made it 3-0.

The Menace answered back with a strike from Armin Mujdzic in the 54th only to see Cunliffe put the lead back to three 10 minutes later to complete his hat-trick with his 15th goal of the season.