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Kovacevic Double Leads FC London To 4-1 Win Over Aurora

By League1 Ontario staff, 06/12/16, 5:45PM EDT

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FC London women's team has been in rampant form for their first League1 season, and captain and striker Jade Kovacevic (16', 81') made sure they got full points from their home date with Aurora United F.C., leading FCL to a 4-1 victory.

"It feels really good. I'm happy for the girls," said FC London head coach, Mike Marcoccia. "They put in a busy week training almost every day, so I'm glad they got the result."

"It does help to be training every day, and the effort the players are putting in the work, but when you get to the match you have to put what you work on into practice and they have done that very well." 

Aurora and Canada U20 midfielder Sarah Stratagakis (57') pulled the away side back to level terms early in the second half.

"We did well to work it out of the back, I got a nice ball from my teammate and finished it," said Stratagakis. 

"It was an unfortunate result, but we are an expansion team so we are just trying to get together. We expect some tough losses until we begin to gel, that's all part of it." 

FC London's Montana Portenier (66') brought FC London back in front less than ten minutes after Stratagakis had given the visitors the momentum.

"We work really hard in training on the final third, and Montana grinded the entire game doing the same runs - finally it was successful for her," said London's Kovacevic. "When you see a player get a goal from working so hard you couldn't be more proud of her."

The stage was set for Chelsea Zavitz (76') to bend an outrageous strike inside the back post and put the home side up and on their way. Only five minutes later, Kovacevic (81') put away a penalty, the insurance marker to seal the win and cement FCL's top position in the table. 

"We lost to a very good team, first in the table," said Aurora head coach, Ramin Mohammadi. "I think we came short for the last twenty minutes, but were good before."

"We scored a goal early in the second half and kept the pressure on them for the first twenty and had opportunities but sometimes they don't go in. We had a second one in to take the lead, but was called back for offside. I thought the girls did what they could do, they listened to the coaching advice, and at the end of the day we dipped physically in the end."

"We were short on the bench and had a player carrying an injury. But London is a very good team, and great atmosphere here. We're looking forward to next week."

With her goals on the day, Kovacevic also catapulted herself into first place in the scoring race with eight goals from only five matches. 

"I'm pretty proud," she said. "We've come into a new league as a new team, kept a streak going and our style of play consistent - I'm pretty proud of us as a new group."

"We knew Aurora had a great squad and play good football, and for us to be successful by sticking our style and gameplan just makes it all the sweeter." 

"And I love penalty kicks, I love the pressure and I love testing the keeper too. I live for that."