SXU Athletics
The Cougar women’s soccer team earned its second victory of the season on Saturday with a 6-0 homecoming drubbing of Holy Cross College.
The second win came with an offensive explosion, as the Cougars have gotten into more of an offensive rhythm over the last three matches.
They scored four goals in a road match at Bethel College on Sept. 18, three goals in a one-goal, double overtime road loss to the University of Saint Francis (Illinois) and continued the scoring streak with the six against Holy Cross.
That is a stretch of 13 goals in three games after having scored just seven goals over the course of the first five matches.
The strong offensive output also coincides with the beginning of the conference season for Saint Xavier.
This bodes well for the Cougars’ chances of being competitive in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference.
In the breakout game against Holy Cross, senior midfielder Morgan Graves led the offense. She finished with a pair of goals on three shots, and she had an assist.
And Graves did not wait very long to get in on the scoring act. Her first goal came just as the second minute began.
Saint Xavier was awarded a corner kick, which senior midfielder Monica Chavolla took as an opportunity to get the ball to Graves. Graves received the ball and buried from 10 yards out.
Graves would next find herself on the scoring sheet in the 59th minute. This time, she assisted on junior forward Lexi Cozzi’s goal, which came from 10 yards out.
At the end of the 60th minute, Graves received a pass from senior forward Anita Balciunas and broke away all alone to net her second goal from ten yards away.
Sophomore forward Mariana Hoerr notched a goal of her own in the 18th minute on a feed from Cozzi that sprung Hoerr to daylight, enabling her to make her shot from 20 yards out.
Senior midfielder Danielle Inzinga took and converted a Cougar penalty kick in the 58th minute after Holy Cross committed a foul in the box.
Finally, the Cougars concluded their scoring in the 61st minute on a loose ball in close. Sophomore midfielder Brittany Kroening got her foot on the ball after a deflection and put it past the opposing goaltender.
Saint Xavier’s own goalkeeping was great, as well as the defense. The Cougars kept Holy Cross to just four shots the entire game, and senior keeper Danielle Koncius stonewalled both of the shots that got through to her.
The Holy Cross game was the second of the Cougars’ conference matches, and the first had not been quite as successful.
Saint Xavier opened conference play with the overtime loss to Saint Francis, but the win was within the Cougars’ grasp.
In the 81st minute, sophomore goalkeeper Alex Perry mistakenly played the ball with her hands outside the box. By rule, she received a red card and had to exit the game, which the Cougars led at the time by a score of 3-2.
Koncius was forced into action and could not stop an 83rd minute goal that equalized and ultimately sent the match to overtime.
In the second overtime period, Saint Francis got a two-on-one advantage and converted the winning score.
The Cougars had knotted things up at 1-1 in the 35th minute on a goal from Julia Gawlak with an assist from senior midfielder Cassie Pullia.
When the Fighting Saints regained the lead in the 54th minute, the Cougars did not wait to respond. Cozzi took a feed from Gawlak in the 55th minute and buried to equalize the match yet again.
Saint Xavier got its final goal of the match when sophomore midfielder Delanie Bosworth found junior forward Christina Szocka on a free kick.
Szocka made it count with a shot from 15 yards out that gave the Cougars the 3-2 lead they enjoyed when Perry received her red card.
Though the Cougars could not win the Saint Francis game, they showed fight in coming back to equalize twice before taking the lead.
The conference play for Saint Xavier continues today with a match at Judson University at 4 p.m. and a Saturday contest back home against Purdue University Calumet at 11:30 a.m.
Tim Carroll
Senior Sports Editor
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