Pridham's hat trick propels Rapid past Toronto

By Daniel Carrero

Photos by Daniel Carrero

With a sunny summer day and a hat-trick from Delaney Baie Pridham, Ottawa Rapid FC won the Battle of Ontario 4-0 over AFC Toronto on Saturday afternoon at York Lions Stadium.

With the victory, the Rapids sit second in the standings of the Northern Super League (NSL).

After grabbing two wins on the road against Halifax Tides FC and Montreal Roses FC and a FIFA international break, Toronto returned to home turf for the first time since May 11, but the time off proved too long to maintain the form they carried. 

“I think we learned a lot about our mentality and how we respond to bad things happening in the game, and it wasn't great,” said AFC’s captain Emma Regan. “There needs to be changes and people need to take accountability, myself included. We have to bounce back, we don't have time to wallow in this.”

Toronto kicked off the game with their usual 3-5-2 lineup, featuring goalkeeper Sierra Cota-Yarde in her fourth consecutive start and striker Esther Okoronkwo as the main attacking threat. Ottawa displayed their 4-1-4-1 lineup with Desiree Scott—who played her last game with the Canadian National team during the international break—as the central midfielder and Pridham as their solo striker.

Ottawa didn’t waste time after kick-off. Two minutes into the game, Pridham grabbed a through ball that left her in a one-on-one situation against Cota-Yarde and with a single touch of the ball to the left-hand side of the goal, she put the Rapid on the board.

Despite AFC Toronto making efforts to gain control of the match with persistent crosses from both sides of the pitch, nothing came to fruition.

Ottawa wanted more, and following a defensive mistake from Hye-Ji Hong in the 21st minute, Pridham intercepted the ball and delivered a simple shot with her left foot to put Ottawa up 2-0.

Toronto’s struggles to maintain possession and create clear chances continued throughout the half. Ottawa capitalized on Toronto’s lack of threat, and six minutes after the second from Pridham, Stella Downing tapped in a cross from Melanie Forbes for her first NSL goal, increasing the Rapid’s lead to 3-0.

Going into the second half, AFC needed to react. Looking for a boost, head coach Marko Milanovic brought Kaylee Hunter and Kaela Hansen into the game.

Hunter had an immediate impact on the game, as in the 55th minute, she played a through ball to Nikayla Small, who laid it to Okoronkwo for Toronto’s first shot on target of the game.

Nevertheless, the substitutes didn’t find the answer Toronto was looking for. Instead, Pridham scored her third of the night in the 61st minute following a mistake from AFC’s Sarah Rollins, who misplaced a pass trying to build up a play from her box. This marked the second defensive mistake that ended up in a goal.

“Individual mistakes happen on every level, and it's not really something that you can prepare for necessarily,” said Milanovic. “We have to ensure that those girls who make those mistakes understand that we still fully believe in them, that mistakes will happen.”

With her goal, Pridham secured NSL’s first hat-trick, which meant a lot in a familiar setting such as Toronto. 

“My whole family's here. My dad is from Toronto, and all my cousins and my grandpa—who’s 93—are here. So it's truly special to have that moment in front of my family,” said Pridham. “Obviously, as a striker, it feels good to knock in goals for the team and help us win.”

AFC Toronto was playing its worst game so far in the NSL, but amongst everything going wrong, the fans at York Lions Stadium had something to cheer on. In the 67th minute, AFC Toronto and NSL’s first-ever signing Jade Kovacevic, finally made her debut after dealing with injuries to begin the season.

“It was great to see Kovacevic on the field. It's been a long time coming,” said Milanovic. “She's been through a lot the entire preseason, and now, beginning of the season, she's had multiple injuries, and finally, she's back.”

Kovacevic had little involvement in the game as the damage was already done. Ottawa controlled the rest of the game and secured the win, their second in the Battle of Ontario this season.

“Ontario is blue, so I'll leave it there,” said Pridham with a laugh.

Toronto now faces a quick turnaround as they will travel West to face the Vancouver Rise, a matchup that means a lot to players from Vancouver, like Regan.

“It's a very cool feeling. I'm excited, I'll have a lot of family at the game,” said Regan. “But honestly, it's full focus on the result. We can't have this turn into a string of bad performances.”

UP NEXT: AFC Toronto hosts Halifax Tides FC on June 21 at York Lions Stadium. Intermission Sports will have you covered on that game and much more from the NSL.