It’s good to be back home in front of your fans.

On their recent road trip back east, Vancouver Rise discovered that it’s a different game on the road. With two home games in less than a week, this was the perfect opportunity for the Rise players to regain their confidence—especially against the winless Halifax Tides, whom they had already defeated earlier this season.

This was the perfect game for the offense to build some confidence. In most of their games this season, they had dominated possession, but they had only scored four goals in their first five matches—two of which came from penalty shots.

Things didn’t go as planned for Vancouver Rise at the start of the game, as the Halifax Tides took the initiative and dominated possession early on—including a near-certain goal in the sixth minute when Megumi Nakamura was left unmarked but sent her shot from six meters wide. Saorla Miller opened the scoring in the 15th minute, receiving a low cross from the left wing and finishing confidently from ten meters.

Full credit to Halifax for their early lead, as they created plenty of opportunities and could have easily put the game away in the first twenty minutes. After the midpoint of the first half, Vancouver slowed the game down and began to maintain ball possession, while Halifax played less aggressively and started to hang back rather than challenging for the ball. Vancouver’s patience paid off in the 39th minute, when a long through ball was headed on to Lisa Pechersky, who pushed the ball past the charging Halifax goalkeeper for an easy shot into the unguarded net.

Meriah Lee put Vancouver into the lead in the 44th minute when Pechersky delivered a perfect cross from the right side of the box, finding an unmarked Lee, whose powerful header sailed into the left corner of the goal.

In the second half, Vancouver began to take control of the game with numerous scoring attempts. If not for some spectacular saves by Anika Toth, they could have easily added two or three more goals.