BELLINGHAM, WA - Newly minted as the No. 6-ranked team in NCAA Division II men's soccer, the SFU Clan (3-0) lived up to that billing on Saturday. Pitted against the Notre Dame de Namur University Argonauts (1-3), the Clan got goals from captain Ryan Dhillon and sophomore midfielder Kyle Jones en route to a decisive 2-0 win.
"[The Argonauts] are a much better team than their record would indicate," said SFU head coach Clint Schneider after the contest. "They played us hungry, and they played us well. We created loads of chances, but didn't finish as well as we should have. Still, when you can get a result against a solid team when not playing your best, we'll take that."
After the Clan came close on a couple of chances in the early going, Dhillon broke the scoreless deadlock 20 minutes into the opening frame. Taking a fantastic feed from Adam Jones, the captain broke in off the right flank, behind an Argonaut fullback, and struck from 10 yards out.
Despite a bevy of chances in the latter half of the frame, the Clan couldn't solve Crewis again in the opening stanza.
However, the same held true for Notre Dame de Namur, as the Argonauts couldn't break through the formidable Clan backline of Robert Hyams, Magnus Kristensen, Pascal Schmidt, and Anthony Van de Vendel, as well as the versatile Andre Pietramala.
"We were great defensively today – I think [senior goalkeeper] Brandon [Watson] only made one save the entire night, and it was a punch out on a free kick," recalled Schneider.
The clean sheet against NDNU marks the third in three games for Watson. Remarkably, the netminder has only had to make two saves over the course of those contests.
The Clan nearly doubled their lead 20 minutes into the second half, as Adam Jones was awarded a penalty kick. The team's leading scorer from last year got a little too much on the ball, sailing it above the crossbar.
However, the Clan finally got their insurance marker with 13 minutes remaining in the contest, after Michael North was hammered down in the NDNU 18-yard box.
This time, it was Kyle Jones who stepped to the spot, and the midfielder buried the opportunity with a bullet strike past Crewis.
Missed opportunities against the Argonauts will give him something to think on – the Clan had 16 shots, and seven on target - but overall, Schneider likes the look of his squad at the moment.
"Could we have been better today? Absolutely. Still, we're 3-0 at this point in the year, and we've still got two non-conference games left. We've still got a few starters out with injuries, so our biggest goal right now is to get guys healthy and back up to speed before we hit GNAC play."
Before they get into conference play, the Clan are off to Hawaii next week, as they are scheduled to face the Bringham Young University – Hawaii Seasiders on Thursday, September 15. SFU will close out their regional schedule against the Hawaii Pacific University Sharks, who they will square off against on Saturday, September 17. Kick-off for both games are set for 3:30 pm on their respective days.
