It was a night that won’t soon be forgotten by Emma Pringle and supporters of SFU women’s soccer. On her NCAA debut, the freshman from North Vancouver scored two goals to lead her team to a 2–0 victory over the Academy of Art. Both goals came in spectacular fashion.
“She was incredible, driving play all over the field,” head coach Annie Hamel told SFU Athletics. “When you have a freshman who can come in and give a performance like that, especially in her debut, you get excited. She has a very bright future.”
The first half was all SFU. They peppered the Academy of Art defence with an incredible 15 shots, eight of which were on target and had to be saved by the opposing goalkeeper. Despite all the pressure and dominance, SFU had no goals to show for it at the 45-minute mark.
Once the second half started, the Clan were finally rewarded for their efforts. In the 50th minute, Emma Pringle scored her first of two on the night. Picking the ball up 30 yards out, she dribbled a few yards before unleashing an absolute screamer into the top left corner, leaving the Academy of Art goalkeeper no chance to stop it.
She wasn’t done there. Just seven minutes later, a cross was lobbed in by Christina Dickson into the six-yard box. Waiting for it was Pringle, who was all alone and calmly headed the ball into the back of the net. SFU added another 10 shots after that, bringing up their total to an incredible 27 on the night.
The play of SFU’s defence was equally impressive. The combination of Allyson Dickson, Emma Lobo, Carli Grosso, and Teagan Sorokan only allowed two shots the entire night, making life easy for goalkeeper Priya Sandhu.
Looking towards the future, Pringle brings some much-needed attacking prowess to the Clan. Outside of Christina Dickson, SFU did not have a player who could be counted on to score goals for the team. Pringle, at least very early on, seems to be doing that. In a previous interview with The Peak, coach Hamel noted that she was looking for Pringle to “complement Christina [Dickson] and Monnie [Heer],” but after this performance, she may become the focal point of the SFU attack.
The Clan’s next home game is September 24 against defending GNAC champions Western Washington. Kickoff is at 4:30 p.m.
