The UNB Saint John Women’s soccer team played their final two home games of the regular season this past weekend.
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Saturday’s matchup was against the second place Mount Saint Vincent University Mystics who the Seawolves last faced in the opening weekend of the season when MSVU won in a 5 – 0 shutout. On Saturday, the fourth place Seawolves were looking for redemption.
The first several minutes of the game consisted of back and forth possession, with the ball mainly staying in the Seawolves defensive end.
UNB Saint John’s goaltender, Laiken Fox, was forced to make plenty of saves early on, but with 10 minutes left in the first half, MSVU found the back of the net to open the scoring with a shot from Laura Younker.
Before the half ended, Laiken Fox grabbed a pass from a teammate which forced a free-kick just seven yards away from goal. Fortunately, wolves’ Katrina Carroll blocked the free-kick and saved a potential goal.
“We were scrambled, and a bit frazzled, and we made lots of silly mistakes,” says Seawolves head coach, Robert Mather, acknowledging these mishaps after the game.
Minutes into the second half, things began to look up for the home team when Hannah Thorne tied the game with a hard-fought goal.
However, MSVU struck back five minutes and ten minutes later as Younker managed to sneak the ball past the Seawolves keeper twice more.
The Seawolves pushed back with a goal courtesy of Lauren Coyle later in the half bring the game within reach again.
The Seawolves comeback attempt was not to be as Younker managed to seal the Seawolves’ fate with her fourth goal of the game with 20 minutes left.
“You have really good parts of the game, then you have times where you get stuck a little bit. At this time in the season against the top teams in the league, they’re going to take advantage of that,” coach Mather explains.
The final score of the game was 4 – 2 for the Mystics. The outstanding performance shown by Laura Younker was the story of the game, scoring all four goals in a single game which led her team to victory.
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Sunday’s matchup was cold and windy as UNB Saint John took on the University of King’s College Blue Devils, who also beat UNB Saint John at the beginning of the season 3 – 1.
Katrina Carroll of the Seawolves started the game strong, burying the first goal of the game 14 minutes into play.
Along with the first goal, UNB outshot their opponent 12-4 in the first half, however UKC managed to slip one past the Seawolves keeper which was all they needed to tie it going into the second half.
The second half was fairly quiet at the beginning with few shots taken by either team.
With 20 minutes left in the game Seawolves striker, Geselle Tuquib, scored a beautiful goal to take back the lead
UKC fought back hard with four excellent chances and a flurry of chances off corner kicks, however it was not enough to come back and the game ended with a final score of 2 – 1.
Winning their last home game was a big boost for the team, as Seawolves player Kaitlin Casey explains.
“Before the game we were tied with UKC, and when there’s multiple teams battling for the last two playoff spots this late in the season it’s really important to get every win we can. We have been picking up speed as the season has gone on so winning that really kept us in forward motion.”
The Seawolves are now just behind Mount Saint Vincent for 3rd place in the ACAA. They’ll look to improve upon that and secure a playoff spot on Saturday, October 22 in Truro as they take on the Dalhousie Agricultural Campus Rams at 2:00 P.M.
On Sunday, October 23, the squad travels to Prince Edward Island for their final game of the season against the Holland College Hurricanes at 12:00 P.M.
