The St. Thomas University soccer teams came away with two wins and shutouts in their doubleheader on Sept. 29 against the Crandall University Chargers.
Almost as soon as the game began the Tommies turned over the ball to Crandall. This left one of their forwards alone with a clear shot into the Tommies net, but keeper Mary Cronin was able to make a nice save.
The STU women started off slow, but it only took 10 minutes for them to get on the board. Nikita McCartney put the ball into the left of the net with a nice chip.
Five minutes later McCartney received a great pass and took a shot, but was robbed of a breakaway goal. For the rest of the half, the women traded opportunities but both keepers kept the nets empty.
The second half remained controlled by the goalkeepers, as both teams had chances to score but no goals to show for it.
McCartney received a pass to give herself another breakaway, but hit the post. Six minutes later, she got her second goal of the game after receiving a clear pass and nailing it into the left side of the net. This brought the final score to 2-0 for the Tommies.
The men’s game began with a goal for the Tommies not even a minute into the game by Hassan Yussuf from the left side of the field.
After 20 minutes, the Tommies got their second goal of the game after James Russell made a nice shot.
Thirteen minutes later, Jatly Jardine took a run up the field and sent the ball into the bottom left corner to bring the Tommies to a 3-0 lead.
For the rest of the half, the Tommies had several opportunities to score, but couldn’t get another goal past the Chargers keeper.
However, the Tommies scored another goal 15 minutes into the second half as David Effiong scored on a rebound from Juan Diego Correa.
Effiong got his second goal of the game with a nice shot into the right corner of the net, bringing the lead to five goals.
Effiong completed a hat trick with less than five minutes left in the game off a rebound from his own shot, making the final score 6-0.
Women’s head coach Michelle DeCourcey was impressed with both team’s performances, but wants to see improvement from her team.
“I’m happy we came away with the win, I don’t think it was our best effort so far this season but we got the result,” said DeCourcey. “Now it’s time to refocus and regroup and hopefully we can go into next weekend with a little more energy.”
She wants to see the team working together as a whole.
“The key is attacking and defending as a whole, it’s not just our offense attacking but our defence as well, and vice versa when we’re defending.”
