Rough start for women
St. F.X. makes UPEI pay for its mistakes while Panthers also lose to Moncton
It was a rough weekend for the UPEI women’s soccer Panthers.
UPEI dropped its first Atlantic University Sport women’s soccer game on the weekend on Saturday, a 4-0 decision at the hands of the defending champion St. F.X. X-Women.
UPEI head coach Graeme McDonald said his Panthers were already back on their heels when Kelsey Ellis opened the scoring for X just 24 seconds into the game.
“We lost an early goal and that kind of set us back a little bit,’’ McDonald said. “I think the girls played well enough to compete against X. We possessed the ball very well . . . so that was very pleasing to see and we had some good stats but, unfortunately, we’re not taking advantage of our chances at the moment to put the ball in the net.’’
Ellis would score again in the 59th minute of the second half and X poured it on from there with goals from Larissa White (75th minute) and Mercy Myles (90th minute).
Erin Visser picked up the clean sheet for X, making three saves. Amanda Stanyer allowed four goals on five shots in the Panther net.
UPEI had the edge in corner kicks at 4-0.
“X are a strong team and the defending champions so they came out strong. They have a couple of really good players there that can hurt you so they scored when they had the chances and we didn’t . . . score on our chances.’’
On Sunday, UPEI would battle Moncton a bit tougher but still came away with a 3-1 loss.
Catherine Dupuis opened the scoring in the first minute before Danielle Younker tied it up for UPEI in the 35th minute.
Moncton would score twice in the second half, Natalie Fleming (53rd minute) and Dupuis again (67th minute).
Shots were even at 11-11 while UPEI had the edge in corner kicks at 9-7.
“We created a lot more opportunities to score,’’ McDonald said. “We had enough chances to have the game tied up at half time. We’re just not taking those opportunities and scoring those goals. If you wanted a headline it would be we are getting punished. We make a couple of mistakes and they’re scoring on them.’’
Still, McDonald sees a silver lining ahead for his squad.
“Our possessions are good, we’re creating those opportunities and we’re getting involved. We still have our home games to get the points back and get back on track.’’