Cougars dominate Trojans

WOMEN

The Mount Royal University Cougars women’s soccer team came out slow out of the gates on Wednesday night, but once they got going, they were nearly unstoppable.

The Cougar women used four goals in a 13 minute span in the first-half and played stout defence the rest of the way, sweeping the season series with their second win over the SAIT Trojans 4-1 on Wednesday night.

Kelsey Kinzner, Courtney Elliott, Donella Lockhart and Karlee Hodl all found the back of the net for the Cougars, who improved to 6-1-1 with the victory.

Head coach TIno Fusco said he was happy to get the win.

“I was glad to get the result, especially at home,” said Fusco. “We like to take points at home and we’re still in a race for the playoffs with a few games left. We have this weekend off, so we’ll see what the other teams do, but a win is a win; I think there are still a few things I’d like to fine tune before we get to playoffs, but we have two weeks to do that, so we’ll look to improve in the training sessions.”

After a relatively uneventful first 30 minutes, the Cougars came alive on offense in a matter of minutes and all but put the game away.

The scoring spree started at the 33 minute mark, as Kelsey Kinzner took a pass and turned on the jets for a partial breakaway; with the Trojans keeper Melaine Archer charging hard at Kinzner she released a beautifully timed shot which hit hard off Archer’s hands and in for the 1-0 lead.

The Cougars would give the goal back, just minutes later, as Janelle Carbert sent a ball from the back end to MRU goalie Kelsey Marklund. Marklund, who appeared unprepared for the pass, tried to clear the ball which ended up on the right foot of Trojans midfielder Courtney Thomas who deposited it top left corner past a helpless Marklund tying the game at 1-1.

The scoring wouldn’t stop there, as just a minute later; Courtney Elliott would find herself left unmarked on the left-side, receiving a pass in the box and letting loose a seeing-eye-shot to restore the one goal lead.

The Cougars would continue to pounce on their opposition, as Donella Lockhard would undress a SAIT defender in space, controlling the ball with unparalleled controlled and lobbing a beautifully placed ball over Thomas’ head and just inside the right post to make it 3-1 Cougars.

Karlee Hodl would add her team leading eighth goal of the season just two minutes later on a breakaway, showing tremendous speed as she burned past a pair of SAIT defenders and finished it right corner to give the Cougars the three goal lead.

“I told the girls, we want to score first and come out and set the tempo early. Unfortunately, we didn’t do that for about 30 minutes, but once the wheels started rolling we found the net a few times,” said Fusco.

The second-half would bring few scoring opportunities for either side, as the Cougars seemed content to play with the lead, controlling the ball and limiting the Trojans offensive opportunities, bringing the game to a 4-1 finish.

MRU keeper Kelsey Marklund, earned the win in goal for Mount Royal, her first of the season.

Coach Fusco said he was pleased with the way Marklund played, in place of starter Ainsley Cardoso-Wagner.

“Kelsey came into camp without getting a whole lot of minutes because she was injured,” said Fusco. "She is now fit to play, so we wanted to get her some time and experience. We had one small mishap today, but other than that she played a solid game.”

The Cougars will enjoy the weekend off, but will keep a close eye on the Red Deer Queens who now just sit one point ahead of the Cougars for first place in the south division.

A loss or tie by the Queens would open the door for the Cougars to potentially host the ACAC Championships. The Cougars would need to win their final two games against the Medicine Hat Rattlers and Lethbridge Kodiaks, a pair of teams who always compete hard and hope for a Red Deer tie or loss if they’d like to play host.

The next game for the Cougars will be on the road at Medicine Hat on Oct.22, before they return home the following day to face the Lethbridge Kodiaks on Saturday, Oct.23. Game time is set for noon.

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MEN

After a three game slide took the Cougar men’s soccer team to 3-3 on the season, they have righted the ship. The Cougars followed up a 3-0 win over Red Deer College last weekend with a statement 4-0 win over the SAIT Trojans on Thursday night. The Cougars played one of their best games of the season under the bright lights and sent a notice to the rest of the South division in doing so.

The Cougars put in a full 90 minutes on Thursday, something Head Coach Jamie Pollock says was missing during their three-game skid.

“That was the difference between tonight and previous games,” said Pollock. “We were able to put in a full comprehensive effort out there tonight. The attitude on the field has been the biggest change, and the level of competitiveness [as well].”

Josh Doiron and Caden Sawatzky each found the back of the net, and forward Sean Colvin had an outstanding game, scoring twice for the Cougars.

The Cougars got on the board early, and in the game’s second minute Doiron took a beautiful cross from the far side of the field and sent a looping header over the outstretched hands of SAIT keeper Seth Van Loon to make it 1-0 Cougars. In the heat of the moment Doiron ripped off his shirt as he sprinted around the field, and was given a yellow card for his excessive yet exciting celebration.

The defence was also rolling on this night, and defender Brent Anderson played the shutdown role to perfection, thwarting the Trojans’ offensive efforts time and time again by keeping great body position and making quick decisions with the ball. The Cougars had a scare in the sixth minute after a giveaway in their end led to a Trojan breakaway, but standout goaltender David Thalheimer was equal to the task, making a breathtaking save to keep the Trojans off the scoreboard. Thalheimer recorded his fourth shutout of the season with the win.

The Cougars carried the play for most of the first 45, but were unable to add to their lead as the game neared halftime. The Trojans took a huge blow during the final moments of the first half as speedy striker Addis Regassa took Anderson down hard after a narrow offside call, prompting a red card from the referee. The pushing and shoving began, resulting in a yellow card for the Cougars as Andersons’ teammates came to his defense.

The second half started with more fireworks from the Cougars as Colvin put a deft touch on a beautiful through-ball up the middle of the field, sliding it past Van Loon into the bottom corner to make it 2-0 Cougars. The wind seemed to come out of the sails for the Trojans after that, and being a man down for the entire second half was too much for them to overcome. 

Colvin struck again in the 53rd minute, this time adding a highlight-reel goal to his resume as he took a pass in traffic before flicking the ball to himself and hammering home a beautiful volley in the top left corner to make it 3-0 Cougars.

Sawatzky got into the action in the 62nd minute, taking a nice pass from forward Tom Clancy at the top of the 18 yard box before one-timing it home. In addition to his goal, Sawatzky played a solid game in the middle of the pitch, and was all over the field making plays both on offense and defence for the Cougs.

The home team put it in defensive mode after that, and cruised the rest of the way for the win.

The Cougars look to be on the right track as they enter their final week of regular season play. They’ll have the weekend off before taking on the Medicine Hat Rattlers on Saturday October 22nd. They will return home to wrap up the season on October 23rd against the Lethbridge College Kodiaks. Kick-off will be at 2pm.