Following impressive back-to-back wins, Coach Vucinic’s week consisted of traveling away to Olivet Nazarene, followed by a home game against Trinity International. The goal was to continue the trend of positive results. Results were mixed.
SXU fell to Olivet Nazarene, 2-0. The Tigers scored the first goal of the game via penalty kick in the 30th minute. ONU’s Timu Moshobane converted from the spot bringing his season tally to five. Ten minutes later, Moshobane scored his second of the night weaving around the SXU defenders before placing his shot to the far post.
SXU battled to try to get back in the game. The team finished with a total of 15 shots, five on target. Danny Lopez had two shots on goal with three others having one a piece. Frank Valle faced 12 shots, making five saves in the process.
SXU plays better at home. Prior to the game against Trinity International, their record at home was four wins to just one loss.
The Cougars were making use of home-field advantage and it proved to be the case against Trinity Christian. With three different scorers on the night, Saint Xavier won the game, 3-1.
The team came out to a strong start and opened up the score early in the first half via junior midfielder, Ricardo Aldape. In the 14th minute, Aldape converted off a free kick from the right to give SXU the lead as well as his first goal of the season.
SXU continued to pressure in search of a second goal. They rattled off three more shots but were either off target or saved by the keeper. However, Trinity International would be the ones to get a goal.
In the closing minutes of the first-half, Trinity managed to tie the game. The two teams would head into half-time, somehow, tied 1-1.
SXU came out of the half intent on retaking the lead. They would do just that in the 48th minute as Danny Lopez, via a penalty, gave SXU a 2-1 advantage.
The score stayed that way until the 65th minute when David Rebollar, CCAC’s Offensive Player of the Week the week prior, put the game to bed. It was Rebollar’s team leading, sixth goal of the season. The Cougars won by a final of 3-1.
SXU continues to make Deaton Field a fortress as they’ve now won five out of their six games played at home. During that stretch, SXU have outscored their opponents 13-5 while holding their opponents scoreless in three of those games.
With the loss and win this past week, SXU’s record stands at 7-7 overall, (5-1 at home), and 4-4 in conference play.
The women’s soccer team hoped to build some semblance of consistency after a win and a draw in their last two games at home. Olivet Nazarene and Trinity International would be the opponents standing in their way.
Things could not have been worse for Coach Vucinic and his team. Away to Olivet Nazarene, the team were completely out-classed and lost 7-0.
The flood gates opened early as ONU’s Sarah Buffum got past a defender and chipped the ball over Carly Bledsoe in the 11th minutet for the first goal.
Less than ten minutes later, Buffum would add another goal off an assist from Tess Marcordes. Things were not looking good.
They went from bad to worse as any sort of comeback from SXU was derailed as Buffum would complete her first-half hat trick and put Olivet Nazarene up 3-0 in just under 30 minutes. SXU entered half-time trailing by three.
SXU did well early in the second-half to keep the opponents off the board. That would come to an end in the 63rd minute as Buffum added a fourth goal, bringing her season total to seven.
Nazarene scored their fifth and sixth goals in the 72nd and 74 minute, Jessica Schmidt and Hannah Ondrey, scoring the goals, respectively. To add insult to injury, they would get their seventh, and final goal, via a penalty kick in the 90th minute. It’s a game the team would rather soon forget.
Fortunately, they were back at it a few days later, at home, against Trinity International. Unfortunately, the result was more of the same.
Saint Xavier actually went ahead in the game as junior midfielder, Abigail Peppin, scored her first goal of the season to give her team a 1-0 lead.
That lead was shortlived as less than two minutes later, Trinity would pull level with a goal of their own. Peppin and senior midfielder, Hannah Bressner, tried to pull the team ahead but both of their shots were blocked. The teams entered the half tied at one.
Trinity International took the lead in the 61st minute and scored again in the 63rd. Any sort of confidence or momentum was drained from Saint Xavier as they only had one shot in the entire second-half.
Similar to the game against Oliver Nazarene, Trinity put the last nail in the coffin in the 83rd minute to win 4-1.
Two tough defeats for women’s soccer the last week. Despite the 4-1 scoreline, the team played better than in their game against Nazarene. They were ahead and kept on fighting even after Trinity tied the game.
The second goal seemed to damper their spirits and the third goal brought “here we go again” vibe. One has to assume that one of the reasons the team only had one shot in the second-half was they were trying to not let the game get even more out of hand.
Consistency is what the team has been lacking all season. It’s hard to build a rhythm when its one or two good performances followed by one or two bad ones.
Coach Strehlau and the team only have a few games left before the start of conference play. They’ll be looking end things on a positive note.
Ernesto Hernandez
Sports Columnist
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