SFU Wraps Up Their Home Schedule with a Win over Saint Martin's
Burnaby, BC – The Great Northwest Athletic Conference champion Simon Fraser University finished off their home schedule in style Saturday afternoon defeating the Saint Martin’s Saints, 5-0. Today’s shut out kept the Clan’s perfect record in place as the team now sits at 16-0.
Prior to the game, the teams and fans stood for a moment of silence, in memory of former SFU Head Coach Keith Watts who passed away on August 19, 2011.
“Today was a special day for our program,” said Head Coach Alan Koch. “The celebration of Keith Watts's life and the final home match of Carson Gill, Max Baessato, Josh Bennett, and Anthony DiNicolo's glittering collegiate careers. The fire that our team showed in the first 15 minutes of the game really showed just how special today was.”
Josh Bennett got SFU going with two shots on goal only a minute apart, his second shot almost found its way past SMU goalkeeper Nixon Xan, but Xan was able to get in front of the ball and make the his second save of the game.
SFU kept up the aggressive offensive play, getting close to scoring several times but it was a free kick by midfielder Juan Sanchez that got the Clan on the board in the 16th minute.
The Clan continued to put pressure on the Saints and seconds after the opening goal, Chris Bargholz took a kick from the far left that bounced off the post and was knocked into the net.
Less than a minute later, Fahad Abdulgani got the ball from Bargholz and put a strong shot on net that Xan couldn’t handle, giving Abdulgani his fifth goal of the season and giving the Clan a 3-0 lead midway through the first half.
The Clan rode their 3-0 lead until the final minute of play when, with time ticking down, a Max Baessato pass to Jovan Blagojevic was kicked in past Xan to give SFU a 4-0 lead with just seconds remaining.
SMU's JJ Olson had a busy second half of the play, replacing Nixon Xan in goal for the Saints.
SFU played strong defensively in the final 45 minutes, while keeping the pressure on the Saints as the score stayed 4-0 for most of the second half.
Carlo Basso added a goal late, his 13th of the season, to wrap up the 5-0 SFU victory.
“Really, this match was over pretty early. It was nice to get the whole team in today. We look forward to the final week of the 2011 season in Bellingham and South Dakota this week.”
The Clans next game will be in Bellingham, WA on Thursday, November 3rd at 7:00 PM against the Western Washington University Vikings.
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