After an embarrassing 5–0 loss on Saturday, September 26, which saw the team surrender five goals in the first 15 minutes of the game, the Clan were happy to take a 1–0 victory against the Montana State University-Billings (MSUB) Yellowjackets Thursday night.
“I was looking forward to how they were going to bounce back, if that was going to affect them, and honestly this is the best football they’ve played all season,” said Head Coach Annie Hamel. “Again, it’s a young group and they didn’t let those 18 minutes [last game] define them, they just came back with a vengeance today and played smart and hard soccer. I was very proud of them.”
For much of the first half, SFU dominated the pace of play, with a number of clear chances to take the lead. Though possession belonged to the Clan for much of the half, it was thanks to a few key saves by Priya Sandhu — particularly a shot 13:40 into the game — that temporarily kept it a scoreless affair.
Moments later, in the 17th minute, SFU forward Olivia Aguiar netted the only goal of the match, with assists on the play from freshman forward Katelyn Erhardsen and sophomore defender Mikela Fong.
Despite a series of chances from both teams, neither team could get on the scoreboard for the rest of the match. The second half played like a highlight reel of quality chances for the Clan that just wouldn’t go in.
SFU did appear to have a second goal, however, it was waved off due to an offside. This meant the Clan had to close out the game with a nerve–wracking one goal lead. With 29 seconds left, SFU was called for a foul, and MSUB got a chance to tie up the game on a free kick, but was cleared by the Clan’s backline.
Goalkeeper Priya Sandhu was perfect, making three saves, and her fifth shutout of the season.
The Clan are now 4–1–2 overall and 2–1–1 in the conference, good for third place — impressive for a team that since 2010 hasn’t had more than two wins in a season. However, one issue that the team does face is an inability to convert chances into goals — having only scored more than one goal in a game once this season, in a total of seven games.
“I thought we possessed the ball very well, our movement of the ball was very good, our shape was very good, we created a lot of opportunities,” said Hamel. “But again the same story is we’re not finishing them, [in] these one goal games, our rate is not high enough in terms of the chances we create compared to the chances we put away, so that’s got to get better.
“We need to give the backline and Priya a cushion.”
