There was certainly more of an even keel to the opening weekend that the Cambrian Golden Shield women's soccer team enjoyed compared to that which their male counterparts experienced.

The Cambrian women opened the 2024 campaign with a pair of wins, blanking the Fleming Phoenix 4-0 and following that up with a 2-1 win over the Durham Lords, with both games on the road.

Hulie Occhipinti struck for the hat-trick in the Cambrian curtain-raiser, with Allie Weiler opening the scoring and Emily Levesque registering the shutout versus Fleming.

Game two was far more dramatic as Delaney Elliott scored in the 90th minute to lift the Golden Shield past the Lords. Grace Cranston (Cambrian) and Sage Thomas-Roberts (Durham) had traded goals earlier, with all of the scoring taking place in the second half.

The Cambrian men unleashed an offensive flurry on Saturday, thumping Fleming 10-0 to kickoff the season in style but were on the losing end of a 5-1 decision to Durham the next day in Oshawa.

Musa Joof paced the locals with a three goal effort with Skylar Larocque, Siah Stone and Joshua Vivero all netting two goals apiece. Rushawn Bascoe opened the floodgates very early in the contest while aiden Adonu enjoyed a very quiet clean slate at the other end of the pitch.

That was not the case the next day as Nana Waife Owusu broke the ice for the visiting Cambrian crew before the Lords countered, knotting the encounter at 1-1 by half-time and breaking it wide open with a quick second half goals and two more just four minutes apart a bit later on.

Both Cambrian teams are at home this coming weekend, welcoming the George Brown Huskies to Sudbury on Friday night and playing host to the Centennial Colts on Sunday afternoon.