BATON ROUGE – Summer Clarke‘s full senior debut with the Canadian Women’s National Team on Friday was certainly one to remember as she stepped onto the field as a 70th-minute substitute in place of Gabrielle Carle in the attack and scored the winner in the dying minutes in Canada’s 1-0 win over Belgium at the Algarve Cup in Portugal.
Clarke earned her first international cap and scored her first senior goal for Canada while breaking the deadlock in the 89th minute to hand her country its first win in this year’s tournament.
Canada opened the competition on Wednesday with a 1-0 defeat to Denmark, but earned its first win over Belgium on Friday to move into second place among the four teams in Group A with three points. Canada will wrap up group play against group leaders Iceland on Monday with first place in the group up for grabs.
GOAL Canada!!! Summer Clarke scores during her first #CanWNT appearance!!! #canWNT 1-0 BEL #AlgarveCup 89′
— Canada Soccer (@CanadaSoccerEN) March 4, 2016
A native of Richmond, British Columbia, Clarke earned a call up to Canada’s senior squad this spring on the strength of her second All-SEC campaign in three seasons with the Tigers in 2015. She was LSU’s No. 2 scorer in the fall with seven goals and five assists to help lead LSU Soccer back to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in history and first time since 2011.
For her efforts, Clarke was voted a Second-Team All-SEC striker by the league’s head coaches for the second time in her career, while also earning Second-Team All-South Region honors by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America and being ranked the No. 95 player in the country regardless of class by TopDrawerSoccer.com for the 2015 season.
Clarke made her return to the international stage on Friday with her first senior cap for Canada after emerging as one of her country’s bright young stars in the youth ranks with the Under-17 squad in 2012.
Summer Clarke scores for Canada against Belgium Algarve Cup 2016, Video: FPFutebolOficial #CANWNT @CanadaSoccerEN pic.twitter.com/UDSsqR0v2u
— WomensSoccerUnited (@WSUasa) March 4, 2016
LSU’s program has certainly made its presence felt at this year’s Algarve Cup as former SEC Defensive Player of the Year and three-time All-SEC defender Allysha Chapman started and played the full 90 minutes in each of Canada’s first two matches in group play. Chapman, who was one of the team’s top performers throughout the FIFA Women’s World Cup last summer, has now made 28 appearances with 24 starts since making her senior debut with the Canadian Women’s National Team on Oct. 25, 2014.