London, ON – The Mustangs welcomed the Waterloo Warriors to Western Alumni Stadium Saturday afternoon, suffering a 3-2 defeat in what was their last home game of the regular season.
 
A windy and chilly afternoon celebrating the life of Rocco "Rock" Basacco, a former player and pivotal builder of the soccer program at Western during his coaching years from 1995-2016, set the backdrop in what proved to be a drama-filled contest.
 
It was Natalie Abbate and Reese Fowler on the scoresheet for Western, as the two teams went back and forth until a late Waterloo winner secured the win for the visitors. The Mustangs drop to 7-2-1 with the loss, while the Warriors register their first win and improve to 1-7-1 on the season.
 
"We started a little flat. We didn't play our game. We like to play on the floor and we didn't do that. We had a lot of opportunities in the box, a lot of wide opportunities crossing them in and just couldn't get on the end of them," said Abbate on the loss. "The wind might've played a factor but we can't make excuses. We have to win our next two games. We want to play at home for the playoffs, so we have to win to win the division."
 
"I don't think we were sharp at any point in the game," added head coach Martin Painter. "It was definitely our worst game of the year. Credit to Waterloo they made things difficult and took advantage of their chances and that's the way soccer works. We'll have to look at the game and figure out what we can do better. Today wasn't good."
 
The Mustangs put the pressure on early on, with a corner finding Natalie Abbate but her touch hit the bar. Abbate got her goal soon after in the 22^nd minute, as she cleaned up the rebound off of a Mackenzie Bilotta saved shot to open up the scoring.
 
"It's a really narrow field compared to [Mustangs Field], so we took advantage of the throw in we had and were able to get it in the box and had a lot of numbers in the box allowing us to finish our chances," said Abbate on the goal.
 
With just over five minutes before the half, the Warriors capitalized off of a Western mix up in the back to tie things up as the two sides headed into the break even.
 
The second half was back and forth to start, until the two teams exchanged goals within a minute.
 
Reese Fowler curled her corner kick into the net in the 62^nd minute, with what was initially not given as a goal until a referee consultation was had.
 
"We have a brilliant corner kick taker in Reese Fowler. She scores Olympic goals all the time, and she did that," said Abbate. "The ball went right across the goal line and the [Waterloo player] hand balled it, but because it went across the line it counted of course."
 
However, 19 seconds later Waterloo came back with one of their own, keeping things interesting and tied at two.
 
"I think we went in too over-confident, so every time we went up we weren't focused," said Abbate. "The most dangerous time to concede is five minutes after a goal. We just weren't focused enough."
 
"Same thing happened on the first goal. We were up 1-0, had some chances to make it 2-0, and then let them score and a really sloppy giveaway with bad decision making and lack of communication, and I think their second goal was similar," said Painter. "We had multiple chances to secure the ball, and credit to them they put some pressure on us and took advantage of those mistakes, but both of those goals were similar and bad timing."
 
Despite a final push for Western with time winding down, it was Waterloo who found the winner in the 89^th minute. A one-on-one with goalie Abby Valiquette ended with Waterloo putting the ball into the empty net to secure a 3-2 win, their first win of the season.
 
"We need to have a high focus and high intensity week of training," said Abbate. "We played Windsor in the pre-season, so we'll be fired up to play them. We just need to focus and not go into it over-confident." 
 
"Two games left. If we win our last two games, we'll win our division but we put ourselves in a tough spot and have two tough away games," concluded Painter. "We're going to have to really show up, but that's what it's going to be like in the playoffs anyways. It's a learning experience, and some days you have to take a step backwards to take two steps forward."
 
The Mustangs will hit the road on October 16^th as they prepare to face the Windsor Lancers. Kick-off is set for 2pm.