Montreal Roses knock off Vancouver Rise 3-0 in NSL semifinal opener

The Montreal Roses won the Supporters' Shield this year for finishing first in the six-team Northern Super League's regular season.

The NSL front-runners demonstrated Sunday they have their eyes focused on a much bigger prize.

The Roses opened their two-leg semifinal series — and pursuit of the Diana B. Matheson Cup — with a convincing 3-0 win over the Vancouver Rise at Swangard Stadium in Burnaby, B.C.

Elyse Bennett opened scoring in the 12th minute, and teammate Marie-Yasmine Alidou doubled the lead 19 minutes later.

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Ten minutes after coming in off the bench in the second half, Lisa Pechersky scored in the 73rd minute to make it 3-0 for the Roses.

Goalkeeper Gabrielle Lambert had six shots directed her way but only one on target in registering the clean sheet.

Vancouver netminder Morgan McAslan faced five on target shots and 18 in total.

The Roses, which controlled possession for 56 per cent of the match, took four of the game's eight corners. The Rise received the only three yellow cards of the match.

The Roses and Rise will play Game 2 of the series next Sunday at Stade Boreale in Montreal.

The winner of this series will face the winner of the AFC Toronto-Ottawa Rapid semifinal, which Toronto leads after a 4-2 win in Saturday's opener.