Cougars hunt for first wins

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/09/2016 (3530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Assiniboine Community College Cougars women’s soccer team has played three Manitoba Colleges Athletics Conference games this season.

They have scored zero goals.

But despite dropping their home opener 3-0 to the University of Saint Boniface Les Rouges at Christian Heritage School on a blustery Sunday afternoon, ACC (0-3-0) head coach Brian Cornick was pleased with the defensive effort put forth by his team.

“What I really like from the team at this stage is defensively they are doing what they are supposed to be doing,” he said.

Nonetheless, winning requires goals to be scored. Then again, the Cougars played a large portion of the game short one and sometimes two players as forward Kate Broadhead was forced out of action early in the second half with a nagging right quadriceps injury.

Without one of their top offensive weapons, it was tough for the defensive-minded Cougars to take more chances on offence.

“When you have holes on the field just because you have fewer players it’s really hard to send a couple up because then your defensive line just has natural holes built into it so we had to be cautious,” Cornick said.

Cornick hopes to have Broadhead back in the lineup Tuesday at 5:30 p.m., when ACC plays the Brandon University Bobcats at HLC Field in a game that was scheduled to take place Saturday but had to be postponed due to wet field conditions.

The Les Rouges (3-0-0) opened the scoring around the 10-minute mark when Kelsey Bray — with the help of a strong tailwind — floated the ball past the outstretched arm of ACC goalkeeper Kendall Omeljanow.

Saint Boniface controlled the flow of the first half and had another quality scoring chance but Omeljanow got her hands up on a close shot by Racky Diallo to keep her team within a goal.

Omeljanow’s confidence grew as she turned aside a few other on-target shots from USB.

“It really does help when you get that big save,” she said. “It’s like you keep command of the game and keeps the momentum up on your side.”

It was still a one-goal game when Danielle Wallace had the Cougars’ best chance in the 70th minute but she lifted a shot over the net. That missed chance proved costly as Megan Burns increased Saint Boniface’s lead to 2-0 three minutes later.

Omeljanow made another big save but the Les Rouges got another insurance goal from Shawna Poirier to cap the scoring when her lengthy shot slipped just under the crossbar.

“The thing is with being five-foot-three and being a goalie is a lot of balls go over my head, unfortunately,” Omeljanow said. “It’s very frustrating. The wind really didn’t help but that’s just something I need to work on personally, with my footwork.”

The ACC women showed signs of life against USB but the ACC men didn’t show any in the second half of their game against the Les Rouges.

Tied 1-1 at halftime thanks to an equalizing goal by Alfred Tobacco, the Cougars fell apart in the final 45 minutes and surrendered seven goals in an 8-1 win for USB (2-1-0).

The Les Rouges applied a ton of pressure in the opening five minutes of the second half and were rewarded with two goals in a 30-second span courtesy Yahia Chihab and Aristide Ebrotie to make it 3-1.

That was just the beginning as USB beat ACC goalkeeper Isaac Dufor-Jarvis five more times, four of which, including a penalty by Houssemeddine Dhaoui, came after William Lopez was sent off following his second yellow card of the match.

Down to 10-men, the Cougars (0-3-0) struggled to put up much of a fight.

“We lost the unity,” ACC head coach Bo Kampmann. “We started the first half and I was very impressed. We played as a team, we connected as a team and somehow I don’t know why we lost it in the second half.

“We got pushed back right from the beginning of the second half into the defensive end and that’s where we lost the connection. There was hardly a ball into our midfield and when it was it was played to the centre instead of the wings where we had the advantage in the first half.”

ACC and BU will also tangle Wednesday at 5:30 p.m., in their make-up game.

» nliewicki@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @liewicks