May 30, 2026
The Montreal Roses have suffered their first loss of the season, to the Vancouver Rise
As the Roses were gearing up to welcome the visiting Vancouver Rise, another of Montreal’s women’s teams, the Victoire of the PWHL were proudly parading the Walter Cup along Sainte-Catherines street.
While the Northern Super League season is still early on, the Roses are sat comfortably atop the league coming into this afternoons match. Ironically just ahead of Ottawa – the city who faced the Victoire in the PWHL finals.
See Also: CF Montreal and Portland Timbers draw at Stade Saputo
Surely, the sports aficionados of this fine city must be gazing at the table, drooling at the thought of a second women’s championship parading its way along our streets. And with the Montreal Roses off to such a great start, why not dream a little bit.
However, before we all get too far ahead of ourselves and start prematurely planning parades a la Toronto Maple Leafs, the Roses and Rise still had a date on the pitch at Stade Boreale to play. And Vancouver were in great form this afternoon.
Early on, the Rise dominated ball possession, and had the Roses hemmed into their own half. However, a slight hiccup allowed the Roses to get a foot on a wayward pass and off they streamed down the pitch, where Lisa Pechersky crossed the ball into the box for Elyse Bennett who just had to chip her shot into the top corner of the net, scoring in the 8th minute of the match to give her side the lead.
Ten minutes later, the Rise found the equalizer on a strange play. Former Rose Latifah Abdu gave a great individual effort before running out of space, then sent a pass to the center of the box for Jessica De Filippo who was fouled, but before the referee could intervene, the ball fell to Anna Bout who blasted it like a space rocket into the back of the net. Tied game.
For the following half-hour, the two squads swapped chances, both rang shots off the opponents crossbar, and swapped bookings as Lucy Cappadona and Bout earn yellow cards, but with neither team able to find enough of an opening to snatch a lead. Both goalkeepers were tested and were up for the task. The Roses and Rise left the field with the score level at the half.
The second half saw both teams playing on a level playing field, and splitting everything fairly equally. Montreal seemed to have figured out the tactics Vancouver were using to hem them into their own zone early on, and had adjusted accordingly.
In the 71st minute, the Rise took the lead when Josie Longhurst took reception of another beautifully centered ball from Abdu, who again out-worked her cover and navigated herself into enough open space to slot the ball to Longhurst, who had some luck keeping the ball at her feet, and more luck with Roses goalkeeper Anna Karpenko seemingly stunned on the play.
Vancouver had taken the lead with less than twenty minutes to go in regulation time.
Fresh off the bench, substitute Evelyn Badu felt like showing the crowd that anything Abdu could do, she could, as she was strongest on the ball, out-hustled her cover before slipping a sweet and precise pass over to Noamie Paquin, who spun on her heels and belted a shot into the back of the net. The game was now equalized in 81st minute of play.
Just four minutes later, the Rise retook the lead when Rise winger Jaime Perrault out-motored Stephanie Hill, as she made an Olympic level dash down the sidelines, leaving Hill in her dust with ample room to slot the ball back to the center of the box, again, when De Flippo awaited the pass, and she made no hesitation and no mistake placing a high hard shot into the back of the goal, tucked just under the crossbar.
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The Montreal Roes are defeated for the first time this season, while the Vancouver Rise are now on a three-game winning streak.
The Montreal Roses are next in action on June 13th when they challenge AFC Toronto at York Lions stadium. The Vancouver Rise, meanwhile, take on the Ottawa Rapid FC at Swanguard stadium on June 14th.
