SMC SOCCER: Belles post first win of season
By KATIE McVOY
Associate Sports Editor
The Saint Mary's soccer team is already off to a better start than its 2001 counterpart.
On Wednesday afternoon, it took the field against another young team. The Anderson Ravens came to South Bend with just a year more experience with their coach. Following the 2000 season the Ravens lost nine players and their coach. That seemed like a prime target for the Belles and first year head coach Chris Pfau.
The Belles capitalized on the Ravens youth and took home their first win of the season. The 4-0 win came much earlier in the season this year than the Belles first win last year. Saint Mary's was over halfway into its season when it finally defeated Rose Hulman.
The first half of Wednesday's game looked like it might lead to a dead end. The Saint Mary's defense had held Anderson to only one shot on goal— the only shot the Ravens had all game.
Belles goalie Maureen MacDonald didn't record a single save because that single shot on goal went wide.
But the Belles weren't doing much better. At the end of the first half of play the score was 0-0.
But after that, the Belles offense kicked into action. Four of Saint Mary's 44 shots on goal found their way past Anderson's goalie and into the net.
Emily Wagoner got scoring underway. She scored the first goal for the Belles off of an assist from Jen Concannon.
Concannon, Saint Mary's leading scorer last season, was not content to have her name go into the stats with only an assist next to it. Just 21 seconds after Wagoner scored her goal, Concannon put one into the goal herself, unassisted.
Midfielder Stephanie Artnak also added an unassisted goal and, to wrap up the scoring, Wendy Irvin hit a penalty shot in the final minutes of the game to give the final 4-0 score.
The win brings the Belles record to 1-2 and drops the Ravens record to 1-2.
Saint Mary's will have a week of rest before it plays again against Taylor University on Tuesday.
All Sports Stories for Thursday, September 5, 2002
