The Cambrian Shield women's soccer team lost their opening five games of the season in 2025 before closing out their OCAA schedule by winning four of five.
With a very nice core of talent welcomed back to the fold in 2026, the Shield would love to avoid a similar start this year. In order to do so, they will need to target week two of the schedule after dropping a pair of home games this past weekend, beaten by the Algonquin Wolves (5-1) and the George Brown Huskies (4-2).
Cambrian surrendered three goals early on Saturday, down 3-0 by the 26th minute thanks to a pair of strikes from Cayla Latimer and a solo effort from Danika Mader.
The Wolves added two more goals in the second half, both courtesy of Grace Di Nardo, with the Shield squeezing one in between as Lauren Kennedy found the back of the net in the 61st minute.
On Sunday, the Shield and Huskies opted to open things up in the first half, trading goals with regularity as George Brown found themselves up 3-2 heading to the final 45, with a goal sequence as follows: Jaidyn Matheu (GB - 4th); Molly Watson (C - 10th); Matheu (GB- 10th); Delaney Elliott (C - 32nd): Matheu (GB - 32nd).
There would be only one tally in the second half and, not surprisingly, that came of the foot of Jaidyn Matheu, a talented midfielder who suited up with Alcorn State (NCAA) in 2022 and 2023.
The Shield women will try and right the ship on the road next weekend, taking on the Centennial Colts on Saturday before completing the home and home set with George Brown on Sunday at Birchmount Stadium.
With much of their starting roster intact from last year, there is certainly optimism within the ranks that things can be turned around - though it may require the women to stray a little outside of their comfort zone.
"Our communication needs to be higher on the field," said third year winger Brooke Dugas, a graduate of E.S.C. Horizon in Val Caron. "We've always been a pretty quiet team. We need to bring that intensity out there and stay positive with each other."
Coming off a busy summer of soccer as part of the Sudbury Cyclones League2 women's entry, Dugas is not require to adjust to a much different viewpoint with Cambrian, positionally speaking.
"It's a great opportunity to play at that high level (League2) of soccer heading into our OCAA season in September," said Dugas. "With the Cyclones, I played a little on the left wing and got used to that a little bit."
"Today, we did some switching around, just to throw the other team off. I am pretty comfortable on both sides - but preferably, the right."
The Cambrian men also find themselves sitting at 0-2-0 after one week of play thanks to setbacks against Algonquin (4-1) and George Brown (5-0), also at home. St Charles College product Braxton Ragogna netted the only goal of the weekend for the Shield.
In spite of the losses, Cambrian keepers Olivia Skinkle and Nicholas Santos deserved full marks for their efforts, with the pair coming up with several big stops apiece, helping to keep the scores reasonable.
