Jade Bordeleau's Hat-Trick Dominates SMU
Jade Bordeleau tore through SMU like a storm that wouldn’t blow over.
The NCS forward delivered a ruthless attacking display, scoring a hat-trick and driving her side to a high-scoring win over SMU in a match that never really settled into a rhythm—because NCS never allowed it to.
Bordeleau sets the tone
From the opening exchanges, NCS played on the front foot. Bordeleau struck first, and then struck again, both times finishing moves sparked by sharp combination play. Daisy Duda and Madison Casteen linked neatly in midfield, carving SMU open and twice supplying Bordeleau, who punished the space with clinical finishing.
SMU tried to answer with long-range efforts. Kaia Samuelsen Elverum fired over from distance, a warning shot rather than a turning point. NCS responded by tightening their grip. An NCS TEAM goal added another layer of pressure, then another followed as the scoreboard tilted heavily in their favor.
SMU fight back from the spot
Just when the game looked like it might spiral away from SMU entirely, Brooke Bunton dragged her side back into it. Twice she stepped up from the penalty spot, twice she beat Riley Pickels with composure, and suddenly the visitors had something to cling to.
Those penalties gave SMU life, but they didn’t unsettle NCS for long. Emily Wong went close, Bordeleau flashed another effort over the bar, and Mana Nakata began to dictate from deeper positions, testing the SMU back line with her range of shooting.
Nakata drove one effort just over the top left, then forced Aubrey Brown into a strong save with a strike bound for the top right corner. The pressure kept building.
Hat-trick sealed, NCS pull away
The resistance finally cracked again when Aoki Yuna took control in midfield. Twice she picked out Bordeleau with incisive service, and twice Bordeleau did the rest, completing a dominant hat-trick and restoring NCS’s authority in the match.
Duda fired over as NCS kept their foot down, and the next wave came from the flanks. Erica Roberts stepped into the spotlight, adding another NCS goal with a confident finish and then repeating the trick to deepen SMU’s problems. Her movement between the lines gave SMU’s back four constant headaches and ensured Bordeleau wasn’t the only threat to track.
Carly Montgomery tried her luck from range, missing high, while Roberts forced Brown into a low save to the bottom left. Katie Richter followed with another effort to the same corner, again denied by Brown, who was being asked to do far too much.
Noble’s late answer
SMU refused to fold. Kaylee Noble tested Pickels with a driven shot toward the bottom center, only to see the NCS goalkeeper get behind it. Noble came again and this time found her reward, finally beating Pickels to add another goal for SMU and inject a late spark into the contest.
NCS, though, never lost control. Antonella Mazziotto sent a shot over the bar as the hosts continued to push. Nakata kept probing, firing high once more, while Bunton tried to answer at the other end with a shot over the top.
By the final whistle, the pattern was clear. NCS’s attacking core—Bordeleau, Roberts, Aoki, Duda, Nakata—had simply overwhelmed an SMU side that relied too heavily on set pieces and individual moments from Bunton and Noble.
If this is the standard NCS can sustain, with Bordeleau in this kind of ruthless form, the real question is how many defenses in their path can cope with this kind of relentless, multi-layered pressure.
