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The number one ranked women’s soccer team remain unbeaten at
14-0-1 as they finished their latest road trip by shutting out both
the Mesa State Mavericks (11-3-1, 7-2 RMAC), and the Fort Lewis Skyhawks
(5-9-1, 3-6-1 RMAC) 3-0.
Head Coach Danny Sanchez stressed that the two road games were very
important to his team, especially the game against Mesa State.
“They’re 7-1 in the conference and one game behind us,”
Sanchez said. “This game is huge.”
Metro was able to jump on the board early in the game against Mesa
State when junior defender Elin Otter used her head, literally, by
scoring off a corner kick at 28:40 in the first half, which gave the
Roadrunners an early 1-0 lead. That goal was followed by one from
sophomore forward Amy Leichliter, who scored on a pass from junior
mid fielder Ymara Guante at 56:29 of the second half. Guante scored
later at 81:14 of the second half despite the efforts of Mesa State
goalkeeper Lindsay Blose, who charged out to stop Guante’s attempt.
This weekend marks the start of the second half of the season, and
that may only make things tougher for the Roadrunners.
Sanchez said the team needs to improve more in the second part of
the season than they did in the first.
“In the second go-around, every team knows what everyone else
has,” he said, “so there aren’t many surprises.”
So far, the team is handling the pressure of being the No. 1 team
well. Sanchez says the team hasn’t met any of the team goals
that they have set for this year.
There are still things that the Metro players want to improve on.
“(We want to improve on) not letting the other team score
and finishing our scoring chances because sometimes we let those chances
go by,” junior forward Meisha Pyke said.
Senior forward Naomi Clarke scored two goals in the game against
Fort Lewis, which gives her nine goals this season. Junior defender
Adrianne Almaraz added one goal and an assist in the game, and sophomore
goalkeeper Mandy Allen had five saves.
The game capped off a very big weekend for the Roadrunners as they
got two very important wins.
“We needed to win these games this weekend (in order) to put
ourselves in position down the road,” Sanchez said. “If
we lost, we would need help from other teams; if we won, we (would)
control our own destiny.”
Metro’s next game is on Friday, at 1 p.m. Oct. 24 against the
Regis Rangers (11-4, 7-2 RMAC), and Metro players want to see fans
attend the game.
“Regis is a huge rival, and we want our fans to be there for
support,” Pyke said.
Earlier this season, Metro beat Regis 2-0, giving Regis one of its
two losses in the RMAC this season.
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