If you’re a Memorial Sea-Hawks supporter with a glass-is-half-full outlook, you’ll like the fact the Sea-Hawks’ women’s soccer team climbed over the .500 mark with a pair of weekend shutouts in Halifax.
But if you see that same glass as being half empty, well, the Sea-Hawks’ lack of scoring has to be a concern.
Memorial improved to 3-1-2 in Atlantic University Sport play with wins over the previously-unbeaten Dalhousie Tigers on Sunday and Saint Mary’s Huskies on Saturday.
But they did so with 1-0 wins in both games, leaving the Sea-Hawks with only four goals on the year. Only the 1-4-1 UPEI Panthers (three) and lowly 0-4-1 Mount Allison Mounties (two) have fewer tallies.
In soccer, there are so many moving parts that eventually create scoring chances. And we are getting our chances. I’d actually be more concerned if we weren’t.”
Memorial women’s soccer coach Mike Power
That’s a big switch from last year’s edition of the Sea-Hawks which scored 26 times, second-most in the 10-team Atlantic University Sport (Cape Breton led with an incredible 50 goals).
Of course, last year’s squad had Jessie Noseworthy and Jane Pope, two players who knew how to find the net. But they’ve both graduated from the program.
“Yeah, it’s something we need to work on,” said Sea-Hawks coach Mike Power. “But we have talented players in our lineup, and I think at some point they’ll get hot.
“In soccer, there are so many moving parts that eventually create scoring chances. And we are getting our chances. I’d actually be more concerned if we weren’t.
“It’s only early, but so far we’ve run into hot goalkeepers (Memorial and Mount Allison played to a scoreless tie last weekend despite the Sea-Hawks outshooting the Mounties 8-2) and a bit of bad luck.
“We caught a few breaks this weekend, and hopefully these couple of wins will put us on the road to where we want to be.”
The Sea-Hawks’ men’s team wasn’t so lucky, dropping a pair of 1-0 games to the Huskies and Tigers to fall to 1-3-2.
On Sunday at Dal, Nicole Torraville scored in the 44th minute to win it for Memorial. On Saturday, it was Kate Hickey with the game’s only goal, this one coming 15 minutes into the second half.
Second-year keeper Sydney Walsh had the shutout in both games.
The Lady Birds were 7-1-4 last season, reaching the playoffs for the sixth straight year. Memorial won the AUS championship in 2014.
As for the men, the undefeated Tigers scored with six minutes to go in regulation time Sunday for the win, their fourth on the year to go with two ties.
The Huskies scored in the 25th minute Saturday off a corner kick.
It’s not getting any easier for the Memorial men next weekend as the 4-0-1 Cape Breton Capers are at King George V Park for a pair of games.
The Sea-Hawks’ women team also has a tough pair of games coming up, as the Capers women’s squad is unbeaten in five games so far this season.
