The Victoria Stars were looking to put their loss to AIA last week behind them and come out strong on their first road trip, only to be denied by a speedy and very skillfull Surrey United. Surrey came out strong and had created several attacks while it seemed that the Stars were still trying to get their land legs after the Ferry trip. But at the 15 minute mark, Surrey hit the board with a 20 yard blast that left the Stars keeper Allison Dube with no chance. But despite having to soak up the frequent advances by the Surrey attack the Stars did manage to create a few chances of their own and eventually tied the score after a great solo effort by Stephanie Shaw saw her left foot drive fit neatly into the far corner.
But Surrey kept pressing and took the lead after scoring once again from the exact same spot as the first goal, and then 5 minutes later made it 3-1 to end the worst 45 minutes the Stars have played all year.
And the 2nd half didn't start much better as once again Surrey came at us with everything they had, leaving the Stars on their heels and before you could blink the score had ballooned to an unbelievable 5-1.
The Stars could have easily folded at this point, but to their credit, they dug deep and started to pressure more, and were soon rewarded when Tera Kasabuchi made it 5-2 at the 69 minute mark. And now the chances were coming more frequently as the fresh legs of our bench started to pay off and at the 80th minute Bobby Chisolm made it 5-3 with a great header after the Stars had 2 other efforts cleared off the goal line, but it was all too little too late as Surrey held on to post the win.
"This was easily the best team we have played yet." stated Stars coach Lou Garraway. "Although I'm not sure if it was their skill and speed or our poor marking that allowed them so much room, either way, we did not deserve the win today. The only positive that we can derive from today is that we kept fighting and scored the last 2 goals of the game and could have scored a few more."
The Stars next game is on Saturday at Kelowna followed by Kamloops on Sunday.
Their next home game will be July 7th 1:00 pm at St. Micheals University School against Team BC.