Week 3 roundup

After dispelling of the Medicine Hat Rattlers 3-0 on Saturday, the Cougar women were looking for their first perfect weekend since the season began in early September - and they got it.

Goals by Danika Cook, Kesley Kinzer and Donella Lockhart helped pace the Cougars to their fourth win of the season, and first two-win weekend as the MRU Cougars downed the Lethbridge Kodiaks 3-2.

Ainsley Cardoso-Wagner earned the win in goal, also her fourth of the year, as the Cougars inched closer towards first place in the ACAC south division.

Head coach Tino Fusco, said the heat played in a factor in his game management.

“I think the high of coming off yesterday’s win, and with heat both days, we had to really manage our minutes on the field,” said Fusco. “We had a lot of non-starters get minutes and experience playing today. Unfortunately we made two mistakes and allowed two goals, but we managed to find a way to win today and we came away with the result in an away game, which I’m quite pleased about,” said Fusco.

With the victory, the Cougar women will now prepare for a crucial two-game home stand versus the Lakeland Rustlers and Red Deer Queens.

The Queens currently hold a four-point edge over the Cougars for top spot in south and are responsible for the Cougars only loss this season.

Game is set for noon on both Sat. Oct 1 and Sun.Oct 2nd.
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The Mount Royal University Cougars women’s soccer team looked impressive in their home debut, using three second-half goals and a strong back-end to propel them to their first home win of the season.

Karlee Hodl added her fifth and sixth goals of the season respectively, while teammate Lesley Oosterhoff tallied her third goal in four games, as the Cougars improved to 3-1 on the season.

The first-half was decidedly Cougars, as they registered a number of quality opportunities while limiting the Rattlers offence without a shot in the first 20 minutes of the half.

Karlee Hodl was all over the field, creating a number of scoring opportunities for herself and teammates and was jbarely offside on her best chance of the half at the 23 minute mark, as she steamed in on the Rattlers ‘keeper on a partial breakaway.

Medicine Hat’s best opportunity would come at the 26th minute, as a ball made its way through a scrum and headed towards Cougars goalkeeper Ainsley Cardoso-Wagner.

Cardoso-Wagner charged out at a barreling Klaiber Kaylie, who was the beneficiary of the fortuitous bounce, but it was Wanger who would get to the ball first, snuffing out Medicine Hat’s best opportunity of the first frame.

In the second-half, the Cougars would finally get off the schneid at the 73 minute mark, as Hodl took a beautiful crossing pass in the box from Arika Ness and deposited it into the right corner past a helpless Tasha Bamhare to make it 1-0 Cougars.

Nine minutes later, the Cougars would jump back on the offensive, as Hodl was once again on the receiving end of a deft-touch pass from Courtney Elliott that sprung the talented sniper who placed another ball beautifully into the top right corner to extend the Cougars lead to 2-0.

With the wind clearly knocked out the Rattlers sails, the Cougars would launch one more offensive onslaught, as this time, Lesley Oosterhood out battled a Rattlers defender and fired home a seeing-eye-shot from just outside the 18 yard box that once again found a home in the right hand corner, all but sealing the deal for the Cougars with a 3-0 lead.

The Rattlers would be unable to launch any attack of their own as the time wound down, giving the Cougars their third win of the season, 3-0.

Ainsley Cardoso-Wagner earned the win in goal for Mount Royal, her second shutout of the campaign.

Head coach Tino Fusco was happy with the way his troops played throughout the match.

“I knew today was going to be a tough game,” said Fusco. “Medicine Hat came out quite hard, I know they like to press around the ball and like to double team. With it being so hot outside, and playing on our big field, it certainly didn’t work to our advantage for them to press and keep it going hard for 90 minutes…Overtime I thought we wore them down and the score reflected that in the second half. I thought the penetration and the movement off the ball was great and that’s what we worked on in training. I was pleased with the result.”

Meanwhile, striker Karlee Hodl was equally impressed with her teams performance on the pitch.

“It was tough,” said Hodl. “It was really hot outside, which we’re not very used to here in Calgary, but I thought we really battled through and played hard. It felt great to get the win.”

With the “W” the Cougars improve to 3-1 on the season, while the Rattlers drop to 2-1-1.

The Cougars will head back on the road for a Sunday game against the Lethrbidge Kodiaks, while the Rattlers will head home for a game against the SAIT Trojans.

Cougar Men

For the Cougar men, it’s a weekend they’d rather forget.

After registering their first loss of the season on Saturday to the visiting Medicine Hat Rattlers, the Cougars dropped their second match in as many tries, falling 4-2 to the Lethrbridge Kodiaks on Sunday.

The afternoon started off superb for the Cougars, who were up a goal just five minutes into the match, as Sean Colvin converted his third of the season off a Caden Sawatzky cross.

The Cougars would almost immediately give the goal back, as Cole Runge would convert one of his two tallies on the day to even the score at 1-1.

A penalty kick less than five minutes later would give the Kodiaks their first lead of the match and with time all but ran out in the first-half, the Kodiaks would add a third goal off an uncontested scramble in front of the net.

Heading into the second-half, the Cougars made a number of adjustments, including subbing in rookie Walker Ewing. The coaching move would pay dividends, as Ewing connected on his first ACAC goal off a beautiful through ball from fellow rookie Michael Santos, cutting the lead to just one at 3-2.

That’s as close as the Cougars would get on this day, as Eric Lister would crush the Cougars comeback attempt with his first goal of the season to give the Kodiaks the 4-2 win.
David Thalheimer earned the loss in goal, as the Cougars moved to 3-2 on the season, tied for second spot in the ACAC south division.

Cougars head coach Jamie Pollock said the team was disappointed with their effort, but gave full marks to the Kodiaks for a “strong game plan and great work ethic.”

The Cougars will look to bounce back at home, as they prepare for their first two-game home stand of the season, welcoming the Lakeland Rustlers on Saturday and Red Deer Kings on Sunday. Game time is 2:00 pm for both matches.
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The Cougar men looked strong, physical and fast in their 2011-12 home opener, only problem was, they couldn’t score.

Despite holding a decided edge in scoring opportunities and shots on goal, the Cougar men were unable to find the back of the frame, as Dean Studer held strong in net for the Rattlers, giving the Cougars their first loss of the season, 1-0.

Joshua Bidvar scored at the 51 minute mark for Medicine Hat, as the Cougs’ failed to score a goal in a game for the first time this season.

The first-half was a back and forth affair, with neither team having gaining much ground.
The best chance of the half came off a Michael Santos pass to Cougars forward Kyle Gimenez. Gimenez, who was almost in the clear, fired a shot that beat Studer, but couldn’t beat the post as it rang off the right bar with authority and out of bounds.

The half would end in a 0-0 tie.

Ten minutes into the second-frame, the Rattlers would break the deadlock, as Joshua Bidvar took a quality ball and fired it past David Thalheimer to give Medicine Hat the first lead of the afternoon.

The goal seemed to light a fire under the Cougars, who used the deficit as motivation, clearly stepping up their play from then on out.

Brandan Czymoch, who was subbed into the game late, came out firing on his first shift of the match, laying into a booming shot with just ten minutes remaining that was barely punched aside by the Rattlers keeper.

With time ticking down, the Cougars thought they had tied the game with just one minute showing on the clock off a free kick. With a crowd swarming in front, the ball popped loose to an open Tom Clancy who punched one into the back of the net, with what appeared to be the tying goal of the game. However, much to the Cougars dismay, the linesmen had ruled the play offside; igniting a chorus of boos from the stands and bench.

With their last chance quashed, the whistle blew, ending the Cougars hope of a comeback as MRU dropped their first match of the year 1-0.

Cougars head coach Jamie Pollock thought the team played fine, but could have been better.

“We were okay but we weren’t good enough in the right areas of the field,” said Pollock. “We had enough chances to score, at least six that I counted, and we couldn’t finish, so we have no one to blame but ourselves.”

With the loss the Cougars drop to 3-1, while the Rattlers improve to 3-0-1.

The Cougars head onto the road to Lethbridge tomorrow for a date with the Kodiaks while the Rattlers will head home for a match with the SAIT Trojans.

Pollock expects the team to bounce back tomorrow.

“We’ve got to pick our head up, play within ourselves and believe and we’ll be okay,” said Pollock.

Game time is set for noon tomorrow for the women and 2:00 p.m. for the men.

Best of luck Cougars!