Niagara on a roll in college soccer
With the cross country and golf seasons underway and with the basketball teams taking the court for exhibition games soccer is no longer the only game at Niagara College.
Yet, soccer players are once again the top kicks when the time came to select top athletes for the week ending Sunday.
Impressive winning streaks – five for the Knights men’s team, three for the women – contributed to the sport’s prominent place on the radar, as did the play of strikers Carlos Williams and Michelle Maecker.
Williams, a St. Catharines native and Governor Simcoe Secondary School alumnus in his third year at the region’s community college, scored two goals in a 5-1 victory over the Redeemer Royals and one in a win against the Lambton Lions, also by 5-1 margin, to earn male athlete of the week honours.
An unassisted goal 49 minutes into the Lambton game was the 13th of Williams’ career at and lifted him past Niagara alum Matt Miedema for the all-time lead in regular-season goals.
Maecker, this week’s top female athlete, continued a remarkable rookie season by scoring three goals in two games. The Fonthill native and E.L. Crossley graduate netted two goals in a victory over Redeemer, 6-0; and accounted for the only offence in a 1-0 defeat of Lambton.
Maecker leads the Knights in scoring with five goals and six games. She has found the back of the net at least once in the team’s three-game winning streak.
Her five goals in a season is the second most for women’s soccer at Niagara. Jackie Lawther set the record scoring nine during the 2015 season.
Maecker shared credit for her success with her teammates. She also pointed out she is working hard in practice to improving her game.
Five in a row
Make it five straight wins for Niagara in men’s college soccer.
A balanced attack — goals from five different players, three of them freshman — sent the Knights past the visiting Lambton Lions 5-1 and into second place in the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) West Division.
Alex Latham, Welland Centennial; Carlos Williams, Governor Simcoe; Noah DeEgidio, Notre Dame; Eric Woodland, St. Catharines; and Zach DeWeerd, Waterdown; scored for Niagara in Saturday’s game at Youngs Sportsplex in Welland.
Despite the margin of victory, Knights head coach Frank DeChellis was not completely satisfied with his team’s effort against the Lions, who fell to 0-7.
“We failed to bury our chances in the first 20 minutes, which caused stress going into our halftime break at 1-0,” he said. “We need to fix that if we want to still be playing in late October.
“We won the game and I hesitate to taint that moment, but somebody has to temper our enthusiasm.”
DeChellis was impressed with the play of the defensive core unit.
“I need to point out the play our defenders today. Quinton Leone, Charlie Does, Anu Makinwa and Andrew Currie did the job again,” he said. “They are so inhospitable in our end of the field, I sometimes forget what nice young men they are.”
The Knights visited the 2-5 Mohawk Mountaineers last night in Hamilton. Their next home game is Wednesday, Oct. 11, versus the Fanshawe Falcons.
Back-to-back shutouts
Rookie goalkeeper Alexis Hebert earned her second shutout in a row backstopping the Niagara to a 1-0 victory over the Lambton Lions in women’s college soccer.
Fellow rookie Michelle Maecker scored the game’s only goal as the Knights extending their winning streak to three games and improved to 3-3.
Niagara battled high winds for the first half of Saturday’s game in Welland, but nonetheless controlled the play and outshot the visitors from Sarnia 4-0.
“We started quickly but found ourselves frustrated by unlucky bounces,” Knights head coach Rob Lalama said. “We came out strong in the second half and really took over the match.”
Alexandra Craig, with three goals; Maecker, two; and Samantha Mascai provided the offence in a 6-0 victory over the Redeemer Royals four days earlier in Ancaster.
Niagara travelled to Hamilton last night hoping to win its fourth in a row with a victory over the 5-1-1 Mohawk Mountaineers.