Box Score East Chicago, IN – The Aquinas College women's soccer team jumped out to an early lead Wednesday night and hung on for a 2-1 non-conference win over Indiana Northwest University. It was the Saints' first road win of the season and first victory since Aug. 26 against Saint Xavier.
Aquinas 2, Indiana Northwest 1
The Saints found the perfect way to build a little bit of momentum for the upcoming conference season by collecting a critical road win against a quality program that boasted a winning record (4-2-1) entering Wednesday night.
And it was a victory that was desperately needed and provided a confidence boost after being shut out in their last two matches.
Aquinas took control of the match early with a pair of scoring chances in the first 20 minutes from Khloe Koelling and Katelynn Sterling.
Although they came up empty, the Saints kept the pressure on notched the first goal of the game in the 33rd minute.
Sterling launched a ball from 25 yards out towards the goal and it was mishandled by Red Hawks' keeper Kaleigh Blatti.
The ball bounced free in front of the net and was headed into the back of the empty net by Raegan LaCross.
It was LaCross' second goal of the season.
The Saints took a 1-0 lead into halftime but came out for the last 45 minutes unsatisfied and looked to add to their advantage.
In the 64th minute, senior Maeve Comfort created space and blasted a shot from 30 yards out that sailed over the head of Blatti and into the net to make it 2-0.
It also was Comfort's second tally in five matches.
Indiana Northwest tried to rally, and trimmed the Aquinas advantage in half in the 79th minute.
However, the Saints denied the equalizer in the last 10 minutes as a solid defensive effort thwarted any quality scoring opportunities.
Aquinas goalkeeper Claire Fogarty made one final save in the 87th minute to preserve the win.
Aquinas improved to 2-3 overall.
Inside the Numbers
- The Saints outshot the Red Hawks 14-3 as three different players, Comfort, LaCross and Koelling, combined for six of them.
- Corner kicks: Aquinas (4), Indiana Northwest (2)
- Aquinas won despite committing a season-high 14 fouls.
- Aquinas goalkeeper Claire Fogarty faced only three shots on goal and registered two saves.
- The Saints tallied multiple goals in a match for the second time this season.
Coach's Comments
Head Coach Mario Zuniga-Gil believed that his team would produce a couple of goals and it came to fruition: "We had been creating chances, but we just hadn't been able to put them in the back of the net. We spoke all week about what it was going to take with ways we could create chances and how we could be more scrappy in the box and the first goal was about being scrappy in the box. It made me really proud, and the second goal was a great goal by Maeve from the outside. I did tell them before the game that I was confident that we were going to score more than one and that's exactly what happened."
Up Next
The Saints are back in action for their Homecoming match on Saturday at 3 p.m. against WHAC foe Cleary. It will be the first WHAC match for Aquinas. Be sure to visit AQSaints.com for live statistics and complete postgame coverage of Aquinas women's soccer and all other Saints sports.
NOTE: Dean Holzwarth, serving as the Senior AQSaints Athletics Reporter & Content Specialist for AQSaints.com, brings decades of journalistic precision and storytelling flair to the Saints' media efforts. He's covered high school sports for 11 years at Grand Rapids–based WOOD-TV, following a 16-year tenure in sports reporting with the Grand Rapids Press and MLive. He also writes monthly high school features for the MHSAA website. His deep experience in capturing the heartbeat of local athletics now fuels his engaging coverage of Aquinas College sports.
