Cougars open season on right foot

The opening weekend of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) saw both the Cougars men's and women's soccer teams walk away with wins as they defeated their cross-town rivals the SAIT Trojans 3-1 and 1-0 respectively.

Women
After drubbing the Trojans 7-0 and 11-1 last season, the Cougars knew they wouldn't be in for a cakewalk against a retooled SAIT squad, and they were right.

Despite controlling the play for much of the afternoon, the Cougars could only muster three goals against Trojans goalkeeper Toni Rebeiro-Jacobs, who played brilliantly in earning Player of the Match honours.

The scoring started early for MRU, as highly-touted rookie Karlee Hodl scored her first goal of her career and first of the new season, taking a long lead pass from a teammate and depositing in the back of the net at the 26 minute mark to put the Cougars on the board first.

The blue and white would extend their lead just 15 minutes later, as fellow rookie Donella Lockhart was fouled in the penalty area, leaving teammate Kelsey Kinzner to finish up the dirty work, as Kinzner went post and in to extend the Cougars lead to two just before half.

In the second half, the Trojans would find some life, this time on a penalty shot of their own as forward Elizabeth Hoyeck was brought down hard in the box. Teammate Morgann Schnell got the opportunity to step up and did, beating Cougars goalie Ainsley Cardoso-Wagner with the free shot to cut the Cougars lead in half.

The Trojans would come close to tying the game, some five minutes later, as Schnell was back on the attack, ringing a seeing eye shot just off the left post and out-of-bounds.

However, it's a close as the Trojans would come on this day, as the Cougars put the icing on the cake with just 14 minutes left in the match, as Hodl connected on her second goal of the game, beating Rebeiro-Jacobs to secure the match at 3-1.

“I thought the team played well for the first match of the season,” said head coach Tino Fusco.

“We kept possession of the ball well and had some quality opportunities. Unfortunately, we couldn't finish as many as we would have liked, and credit to the SAIT goalkeeper for that.”

With their first win of the season secure, the Cougars will move onto a two road swing through Lakeland and Red Deer, before returning home on September 24 for their home regular season debut.

Prior to this weekend's competition, Fusco said he'd like to see the team clean up a few things.

“Despite the win, we definitely need to work on staying onside. We had too many offsides and too many wasted chances. We'll continue to look to improve in our training and prepare for the Lakeland/Red Deer road swing.”

Men
After ending last season playing one another in the ACAC bronze medal match, that saw the Cougars claim third place with an 8-1 win, the two teams were right back where they left off as they opened the new 2011-12 season.

Despite three lopsided efforts last year, including 5-0, 6-1 and the aforementioned 8-1 wins for the Cougars; this year's matchup would prove much more competitive.

The first half, proved to be a tight back-and-forth contest, with both teams creating quality opportunities as three shots rang off the post alone in the first half despite remaining scoreless.

In the second half, the Cougars looked like the more confident bunch, playing quality ball with quick, accurate passes and good movement, resulting in a number of great opportunities for new mid-fielder Michael Santos.

The Cougars thought they had a goal in the second half, as Santos beat goalkeeper Seth Van Loon, but the goal was called back due to an offside.

With time ticking down, the Cougars were able to impose their will and open the scoring at the 86th minute, as Caden Sawatzky took a nice through ball from Sean Colvin and beat a sprawling Van Loon, who had come out of his net aggressively to try and cut the angle to break the 0-0 deadlock.

That would prove to be enough for the Cougars who walked away with the 1-0 decision and three points in their first game of the season.

Head coach Jamie Pollock called it “a good win versus a dangerous opponent.”

Next up for the Cougars is a two game road swing through Lakeland and Red Deer, who they swept both games from both teams last year.