The good thing is the Saints found the back of the net a bunch of times while earning an 11-1 victory over Cannoneers.

NCCC raced out to a 6-0 edge by the intermission, and tacked on five more goals after halftime with mainly the backups leading the charge, on the way to improving to 5-1.

The women’s match was the first of a doubleheader at NCCC’s Sparks Athletic Complex field. The Saints men’s team wasn’t as fortunate in the second game, falling 4-0 to the Cannoneers.

In the women’s match, sophomore Nidia DeArmaYero had another dominating performance as she nears the Saints all-time goal scoring mark. She scored twice and tacked on five assists, which gives the Salmon River High School graduate 36 career goals. DeArmaYero is now nine goals shy of the college’s record of 45 set by Alicia Cook a season ago.

Lindsey Reeve, of the Saints, dribbles through Cannoneers Kiersten Hancock (9) and Calleigh Thomas during the opening half of Wednesday’s match. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

Cassie Norton, a freshman from Bathurst, Australia, finished with a hat trick, and Skyelin Bradford, Lindsey Reeve, Jenny Dejung, Taylor Razis, Coryn Young and Charlotte Renshaw each tallied once in the win. Razis also recorded four assists.

The Saints didn’t take long to get on the board, with DeArmaYero burying the game’s first goal 2:13 into the opening half. NCCC owned an 8-0 edge before the Cannoneers finally got on the board when Calleigh Thomas netted their lone goal with 8:10 gone in the second half.

After giving up their first goal since a 4-0 loss to Genesee Community College on Aug. 25, the Saints responded with the final three markers of the game, which were all netted in a span of 4:03 midway through the second half.

“It’s good to win, and yeah, we won handily, but I don’t like giving up a goal,” NCCC coach Kent Egglefield said. “Our offense, they’ve pretty much been unstoppable. The nice thing about today was we sat all of our starters for the last 30 minutes of the game.

“It’s just great to have everybody get time, everybody get minutes, everybody get experience,” Egglefield continued. “When they can keep getting 30, 40 minutes a game of experience like that, it’s really good for the team because as we move on in the season, all the players who were just gaining their playing time and earning it, they’re going to be even more helpful then they are now.”

Owen Yando, a 2019 Saranac Lake graduate, controls the ball for North Country in front of Jefferson’s Jaylen Cook during the opening half of Wednesday’s match. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

Reeve, a Saranac Lake graduate, scored the Saints fourth goal 20:49 into the match when she chipped a long shot from outside the penalty box over the head of Jefferson keeper Taylor Allen. The goal was the third of the season for Reeve, a sophomore who first played for NCCC in 2017 before taking last season off on the pitch. Although the Saints have been scoring in bunches, Reeve said their defense is where the team’s experience lies.

“Up until this game, we’ve been able to keep the ball out of the net. That’s what our goal was, to keep getting shutouts,” Reeve said. “We’ve used the defense pretty well, we’re switching the field. We have a lot of returning players on defense. They’ve played with each other and they are solid and have a lot of chemistry.”

Despite winning by a 10-goal margin, Egglefield hopes to see a better performance from the offense, especially with some tough competition on the horizon.

” I’m very happy with the depth we have, I’m very happy with how the team plays, but I’m not going to lie; sometimes I’d like to see the forwards be a little more selfish,” Egglefield said. “We get a little too cute with our passing sometimes. At the beginning of the game, we got a little too cute instead of just burying it. That was fine for today, but we’re going to be playing some teams that are top ranked nationally. We aren’t always going to get chances like this. We have to learn to capitalize.”

The Saints next travel to Massachusetts for a pair of weekend matchups. They’ll face Holyoke Community College Saturday and play Bristol Community College on Sunday.

“We’re proud of our start, and we’re looking to go into the weekend and keep it going,” Reeve said. “We want two more.”

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MEN

Jefferson 4, North Country 0

During the first half of Wednesday’s men’s match, Jefferson Community College goalkeeper Andrew Mclean made a couple of remarkable leaping saves to help keep his team on top 1-0 going into halftime. Mclean’s teammates then took over the show, scoring three more goals after intermission in a 4-0 victory over the Saints.

Jeffrey Lloyd scored twice, Trenton Sullivan and Sebastian Mastin added a goal each and Mclean recorded three saves to earn the shutout victory as the Cannoneers blanked the Saints to improve to 1-1.

The Saints best scoring chances came during the early stages of the opening half, but they came up empty each time. Sullivan broke the scoreless deadlock when he marched through several NCCC defenders and sent a low shot past keeper Julius Haranyi into the left corner of the net for a 1-0 Jefferson lead with nine minutes remaining in the first half.

The Cannoneers then took control with their three-goal outburst after halftime. Lloyd netted his first goal just four minutes after intermission to put Jefferson on top 2-0, and scored again at the 70-minute mark to up the lead to 3-0. Mastin then rounded out the scoring two minutes later to put the game out of reach.

With the loss, NCCC’s men dropped to 2-4.

“We did not come out strong in the second half,” Saints coach David Clayton said. “No intensity from the guys today; it was a let down for sure. You get a couple wins and then let up. We’ll get back to it. We have a game on Sunday.”

Cannoneers coach Joe Vaddi said he was pleased with how his team played after dropping its season-opener against Erie Community College.

“I thought we did a much better job today than our first game when we got caught up in a long ball game when we played against Erie,” Vaadi said. “Today, we moved the ball on the ground a little better, played the flanks, in and out, we got some good looks, and we finished too. We finished the ones we had.

“I’m really happy with how my young kids are coming along,” Vaadi continued. “We’re a totally different team than we were a year ago. We have some skill where we can hold the ball. We’re skilled in pretty much in 11 positions, which helps a lot, and my goalie made some great saves.”

The Saints next play on the road Sunday at Finger Lakes, a team they defeated 5-3 at home on Aug. 28. Clayton said if his team competed harder against Jefferson, it could have resulted in a win, and hopes the Saints will turn things around this weekend.

“It’s a winnable game but if we come out and play like we did today, we won’t win,” Clayton said. “They just won ever 50-50 ball and we didn’t win a single one. They played hard and with passion, and we lacked that today. If you don’t come prepared you end up losing.”