Saints complete sweep of Bobcats
SARANAC LAKE — The North Country Community College Saints women’s soccer team offered a clinic in composed play Saturday afternoon as it bested the visiting Paul Smith’s College Bobcats 4-0.
The Saints started off strong and dominated the middle of the field, earning plenty of scoring opportunities.
NCCC’s Danielle Charland kicked off the scoring for the Saints less than 3 minutes into the opening half, popping a floater over the head of Paul Smith’s Rachel Michaels for the first goal of the game on an assist from Alicia Cook. Charland would finish the game with two goals and an assist.
Just about 10 minutes later, NCCC’s Kate Stevens broke away from the defense to slide a ball to the near post for the Saints’ second score of the half. The Bobcats struggled to keep the ball out of their defensive half, but freshman Ashley Flynn played well in the left back, thwarting repeated NCCC attacks that came down the right sideline.
As the first half wound down, the Bobcats upped the pressure near the NCCC goal, but couldn’t find a way for the ball to get into the net. The first half ended with NCCC on top 2-0.
Paul Smith’s was more effective in the second half, creating more opportunities for themselves, but still struggled to find the back of the net.
The Saints were poised on the field, moving the ball effectively and keeping their heads up. NCCC didn’t waste many passes as the ball switched from side to side regularly, often leaving the Bobcats flatfooted.
Danielle Cook found the goal for NCCC almost 20 minutes into the second half, which rallied her team and created a chance for Charland to score her second goal of the game and put it away for good.
Paul Smith’s coach Zach Lucci said despite the loss, he was proud of the girls for bouncing back from a 10-1 loss to the Saints last Thursday.
“We say tough loss now, but we actually played them Thursday night and they beat us 10-1, so I see taking a nine goal deficit to a four goal deficit as a significant improvement with one practice in between,” Lucci said. “Quite frankly I think we played well. We had our chances, we just didn’t finish them, so I can walk away from this game much happier than I could from Thursday night’s game.
“We have to, have to, have to have patience and keep having our opportunities. We have to stay composed and disciplined and it’ll happen. We did that — we had our chances, we just weren’t able to finish.”
The Bobcats moved to 2-11 on the season, while the Saints improved to 9-8-1 with the win.
“We were alright (but) they plugged up the middle more after the other night,” NCCC coach Kent Egglefield said. “I thought we played well. They shared the ball well, they passed the ball well. We were able to get a few in, so I guess that’s all that counts.
“We need to make sure we maintain posession more often, basically because we’re not that good if we have to defend all the time. So as long as we share it we’re pretty good. A win’s a win.”