By Jackson Keenan, Staff
Women's and Men's Cru Soccer kicked off their respective seasons this past weekend. Women's soccer played against Southwestern University on Friday and Concordia on Monday, and Men's soccer played against Concordia and Texas Lutheran on Saturday.
The Women started their season off in historic fashion, destroying Southwestern 6-1, the highest-scoring season opener since 2001, and moving the Cru to 1-0.
The Cru started off hot,opening the scoring in the fourteenth minute with a goal from senior forward Natile Mason. After the first goal, the Cru never looked back, scoring seven minutes later with a strike from midfielder Kaitlynn Neil and adding a third goal from Kamryn Taylor to end the first half up 3-0.
In addition to their scorching offense, the Crusaders’ defense also dominated, letting up only two shots, both of which were saved by senior goalkeeper Ainsley Westlake.
To kick off the second half, the Cru continued where they left off when senior midfielder Breland Mungia scored in the 65th minute. Five minutes later, the Cru would net their fifth goal of the afternoon when sophomore forward Trinity Hoffman scored off a pass from senior midfielder Morgen Rathmell. The Pirates would avoid a shutout, scoring a goal in the 78th minute. Still, the Cru responded, scoring their sixth and final goal from sophomore midfielder Alyssa Andana with an assist from senior forward Kelsey White.
The Crusaders finished the game with six players scoring, the most in an opening game in over 20 years.
The Women's team then moved onto their second game on Monday, where they faced former ASC opponent Concordia.
The Crusaders had a very offensive first half, with the Cru getting nine shots off and six of them needing to be saved. However, the Tornados' goalkeeper kept them in check, saving all six of the shots on goal. On the defensive side, the Cru held Concordia to only two shots, with one on goal and none scored, leaving the game tied 0-0 going into the half.
With the score 0-0, the Cru looked to break the tie. While both teams' defenses looked strong, the Cru eventually found the back of the net when, in the 83rd minute, Mason scoring the go-ahead goal, pushing the Crusaders to their second victory with a score of 1-0.
On the Men's side, the Crusaders started their season against Concordia in Roundrock on Friday night.The first half was a defensive battle, with both teams keeping the game scoreless. The Crusaders' offense was kept to only three shots on goal. However, the defense kept them in the game, allowing no goals off of nine shots.
The second half started with more of the same, with both teams stuck at 0-0 until the 80th minute when a goal by Concordia put the Crusaders down with only 10 minutes to go. The one-goal deficit wouldn't last long however, as in the 83rd minute junior forward Alex Bethke scored the game-tying goal off an assist from freshman defender Carter Simpson. The score would remain the same as the Crusaders would go on to tie the game 1-1
The next game for the Men's Soccer was this past Sunday when they went head-to-head against Texas Lutheran.
After tying their first game, the Cru looked forward to getting their first win. However, they came out slow, going down 1-0 in the first half. On the offensive side, the Cru struggled, putting up only three shots on goal, while Texas Lutheran put up six and had one go in.
The second half started poorly for the Cru, with Texas Lutheran scoring another goal in the 64th minute. The Cru showed some life, however, when Simpson put one past the goalkeeper in the 78th minute to cut the lead in half. This comeback would come up short, as the game wrapped up with the Cru losing 1-2.
With two games in, both teams have very different positions in the second week of play. On the Women's side, they have started the year hot again with a record of 2-0 and are hoping to continue their early success at 5 p.m. this Friday and at midday this Saturday in Tenn. Their season started winless when they faced off against Sewanee and Trine University, with the Men's team going 0-1-1. Looking for their first win, the Men will play at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday and 3:30 p.m. on Saturday in Minnesota against St. Olaf University and Claremont Mudd-Scripps.
