By Christopher Shaban
Staff Writer
CLAREMONT — The home opener couldn’t have gone any better for Stevens as they outplayed the visitors in every aspect of Friday’s game to even their record at 1-1.
When your keeper doesn’t make one save all night, things usually go your way. As was the case on Friday for Tim St. Pierre’s Lady Cardinals.
Stella Lavertue put the Cardinals on the board nine minutes into the game then Kiley Bundy crushed a one-timer off a beautiful assist as the Cardinals were rolling with a 2-0 lead midway into the half. Stevens had multiple first half looks and shots all over the Knights keeper as the visitors controlled the ball a total of 6 minutes in the half and Stevens was looking for more.
“We made some nice adjustments tonight to counter their pressing play,” said St. Pierre as Stevens led 2-0 at the break. “We like that and it will only make us better.”
One adjustment led to another Lavertue goal with an assist from Bundy barely a minute into the second half as the Cardinals continued to play a solid controlling soccer game.
With the speedy defensive backs led by Zahna Rice, Brynn Murphy and Aiden Antonivich, Hailey Knight had a quiet time in net for the Cardinals. Molly Derosier blasted one in from 20 yards out then Jenna Bonneau’s exclamation point ended the scoring for Stevens as they look forward to getting better.
“I think we played better tonight and our passes were crisp,” said Antonivich after the game. “This team is 10 times better than we were a year ago and we just need to keep getting better.”
“I think tonight we recognized that Kingswood tried to pressure the ball more in the second half and once we run across the grain, our runs on net will be much easier,” St. Pierre said. “We had too many offside calls tonight. We’re still learning and we are nowhere where will will be in a few weeks.”
Stevens will head to undefeated Sunapee (2-0) on Tuesday for a 6 p.m. match-up against the Lakers.
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