Despite cold and wet conditions, forward Stephanie McCartan found the back of the net in the 65th minute, sealing the St. Thomas women’s soccer team’s 2-1 victory over the College of St. Benedict Tuesday at home.
The Tommies (7-6 overall, 4-3 MIAC) started the month with three consecutive road games against MIAC opponents, losing two of those three matches. However, after an offensive explosion in a 4-0 win over Gustavus Saturday, the Tommies regained momentum just in time for a showdown against the Blazers (9-2-1 overall, 5-2 MIAC).
“We’re getting our momentum. We’re really picking up. We’ve got fire; we want to win … and make it to the playoffs,” McCartan said.
The Tommies’ momentum was immediately apparent against the Blazers. St. Thomas maintained possession for a majority of the first half while St. Ben’s struggled with ball possession on its offensive end. That possession paid off for the Tommies in the 14th minute when a low cross from forward Nicole Sheehan found McCartan open in the box, but the play was whistled as offsides, keeping the game level.
No more than two minutes later, Sheehan was open again on the right wing and slid a ball into the middle of the penalty area. This time, forward Katy Scherer found herself on the end of the cross. Scherer met the ball near the penalty spot and one-timed a shot into the lower left corner of the net. The goal broke Scherer’s six-game scoring drought.
“It’s been a while for me to be scoring, so it feels really good,” Scherer said.
Despite being the only Tommie shot on goal in the first half, Scherer’s score was enough to put St. Thomas ahead 1-0 at the break. While the Tommies held a 1-0 advantage on corner kicks at the half, both teams went into the break with only one shot on net.
“I mean, we really dominated them (in the) first half, and it was fantastic to watch our girls step up to the competition and put the ball away in the first 15 minutes of the game,” coach Sheila McGill said. “It gave them just a confidence that they haven’t had because they felt they were having trouble scoring, and they weren’t. It’s just a composure thing.”
St. Thomas continued its strong play in the second half, and 20 minutes after halftime doubled its lead over St. Ben’s.
After receiving a pass on the left wing, forward Taylor Sabrowski beat a defender down the sideline and drove toward the middle of the field. Taking a moment to survey the field, Sabrowski found McCartan making a run into the box. Sabrowski sent a pass into the box that slipped past a Blazer defender, and McCartan chipped the ball past the goalkeeper to give the Tommies a 2-0 lead.
“We practice those runs all the time, and in games, they only happen once or twice, maybe, on a good game. Even at that, they’re not always successful,” McCartan said.
Though the Blazers scored on a free kick with 10 minutes remaining, the Tommies went won 2-1.
“I think we were kind of in a slump, and I think we’re starting to get out of it finally,” Scherer said. “I mean, every team peaks at some point, and I think that it’s good to peak at the end of the season.”
The women will hit the road Sunday to face Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
“It was good for us to be able to put a top team away. We needed to steal the points from some of the games that we couldn’t put the ball away,” McGill said. “It’s such a great mental boost for our team. We’ve been talking about the fact that they all need to row together and be on the same page, and today they definitely came together as a full unit.”
Jacob Sevening can be reached at seve8586@stthomas.edu,