Thursday night at a late 7:30 kickoff, the men’s soccer team cruised to a 4–0 victory over the St. Martin Saints. After a poor start to the season by their lofty expectations, it was a breath of fresh air to see the team dominate for a full 90 minutes.
“We played well,” said Head Coach Clint Schneider after the game. “We deserved to win the game by that margin. It’s good for our guys to get rewarded for playing well.
“We’ve had games this year, many of them where we played well, but we haven’t been rewarded, because we haven’t finished chances. We finished [those] chances tonight.”
SFU came out roaring out of the gates from the opening kickoff. In the sixth minute, forward Michael North hit the post, and the ensuing rebound was blocked. But the Clan was not to be denied. A few minutes later, midfielder Mamadi Camara calmly put the ball in the bottom corner to give his team an early lead. He was the obvious choice for MVP of the match, adding two goals and dominating the midfield throughout the game.
“We deserved to win the game by that [4–0] margin.”
Head coach Clint Schneider
SFU then started to exploit the flanks, with Calvin Opperman cutting inside to get a scoring chance and Adam Jones scoring from a cross which was ruled offside. Brandon Watson seemed to injure himself in the 21st minute, but carried on for the rest of the game and looked fine when keeping the clean sheet.
Camara’s second goal in the 37th was a brilliant individual effort; he darted through four Saint Martin defenders before burying the ball in the back of the net. He scored both goals to give SFU a 2–0 lead heading into halftime.
SFU picked up right where they left off when play resumed for the second half. Four minutes in, Michael North bolted down the left wing and calmly buried his chance, rolling the ball right through the opposing goalie’s legs. SFU added a fourth later on, with Kyle Jones finishing off a beautifully worked goal that featured many one-touch passes. Goalie Brandon Watson had to make a couple of nice saves in between the two Clan tallies.
With four goals on the board, this was an attempt by committee to try and replace the offensive output that was lost with the departure of Jovan Blagojevic.
“We’re never going to fill the hole that Jovan left,” said head coach Schneider. “I’m just glad we score goals in bunches. That’s the SFU way, that’s the way it’s always been even prior to Jovan scoring as many goals as he did.
“That’s the way we played, and when we made runs, that’s how we won games, by scoring in bunches.”
With a dominating performance under their belts, Schneider hopes this can be used as a “springboard game” for future success that fans of the team have come to expect.
