Women's soccer improves to 2-0 in GLIAC

by Jason Borchard
Vanguard Staff Writer

October 10, 2005 —

The SVSU women's soccer team is taking its GLIAC schedule one game at a time. After defeating Mercyhurst 4-2 on Sept. 24, the Cardinals defeated Gannon 2-1 in overtime Oct. 2 at home.

The Golden Knights came to the game with 151 team fouls for the year, 29 more than the next closest and 50 more than the Cardinals. Head coach Drago Dumbovic said that Gannon was as advertised in the physical department.

"It was a war zone," he said. "It was extremely physical. It was a very hard fought match. I was very proud of the way that they played in that situation."

The Cardinals needed the overtime period to increase their record to 4-3-1 (2-0-0 GLIAC). They played the Knights physical enough to keep them on their heels during the entire game.

Saginaw Valley committed 14 fouls while Gannon added 16 to their league leading total. The difference, however, was the fact that Gannon tallied three yellow cards and a red card while the Cardinals received none.

After playing to a physical yet scoreless first half, both teams looked poised to come out of the locker room and do some scoring in the second half.

Sophomore Ginny Gates started off the scoring for the Cardinals with a goal at the 67:11 mark of the second half.

Gannon evened up the score at one goal apiece at 86:41 to force the overtime period. The two teams still played ten more scoreless minutes of the first overtime to force another overtime period.

Freshman Stephanie Roy finally put the game to an end with a goal just 47 seconds into the second overtime period.

Roy was assisted on the play by sophomore Sestina Scerbo. Roy, who has two game-winning goals this year, said that the feeling was like none other, but she was just glad to come away with a win.

"It was probably one of the best feelings I have ever had," she said of the game-winning goal. "We had been down on their end of the field several times in the last five minutes of regulation and through the first overtime period. It would have been very disheartening to come away with only a tie."

Dumbovic echoed those feelings at the end of the game when he saw Roy put the game winner into the back of the net.

He also pointed out that the team accomplished a lot more during the game.

"It was a very exciting game," he said. "I was so emotionally drained at the end, but it was extraordinary to me the way that we played during the game. Stephanie is working hard and she made a good play on the ball."

Junior Stacy LaLond got the win in the net for the Cardinals.

The Cardinals are off until Friday when they travel to Midland to take on GLIAC rival Northwood. Even though the Cardinals will be coming into the game with a 2-0 conference record and the Timberwolves are at the bottom with a 0-3 record, Dumbovic said that they will not be looking past them.

"Northwood has beaten us the past two years even though we have had a better record," he said. "We need to find a way to beat them. Records do not matter in a rivalry game like this. It will be a very very serious game."

For right now, however, the season is shaping up like a good one already. Even though it is a young season, the Cardinals know that they are going to be making some noise in the GLIAC and they are off to a good start.

"In my opinion the season is progressing well," Roy said. "We are 2-0 and we are on our way to winning a GLIAC championship, which has been our goal since the beginning of the season."

Dumbovic feels the same way about his young team. He knows his team is capable enough of winning the GLIAC, and they have showed him a lot early on in the season.

"We are a pretty good soccer team," he said. "This is not an easy league. We have been playing with a high level of mental toughness, and we are working hard everyday to become even better."

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