By Christopher Shaban
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
CLAREMONT — The high-flying Cardinals continued to shine as they overwhelmed visiting Newfound 9-0 on Thursday.
It was all Stevens from the opening whistle, as Madelyn LaVarnway opened the floodgates for Tim St. Pierre’s team. Moments later, Stella Lavertue scored the first of her three goals of the night, before it was Aiden Antonivich’s turn. The senior has been tremendous in the defensive end of the field for Stevens, but when she pushed up field and ripped off a shot into the net, she had just planted her first varsity goal into the net. “I can’t believe it, it feels wonderful to get a goal, this team is playing so well, and I just had an open run-on net, so I hit the shot,” said Antonivich after the game.
Not only were the Cardinals pouring in goals, but the defense was also solid as it has been all season with another shutout over their first five games as Newfound had trouble getting the ball over mid-field for most of the game. “As a group we have worked all summer and developed into a better technical team. We’re having fun but know we all need to get so much better, the season has only just begun,” said Nevaeh LeBlanc.
Newfound has a very young team and the goalkeeper is playing in her varsity season with no fear. On one breakaway from the Cardinals Stella Lavertue, Mika Austin came off her line to challenge the shot and took one right off her nose and went down in a heap. She came out of the game and was treated by the Stevens trainer Allison Purdue, and once the leaking was stopped, she came right back in to a nice round of applause from the Stevens fans. “I’m fine she told me during a break in the action.”
With Stevens making substitutions quickly and often, Brianna Marsh, Maddy Minckler, and LeBlanc would all find the back of the goal before Tori Dalke capped another Stevens win. St. Pierre even had a couple of young freshmen give it a go in the game as Anna Aiken, Riley Leonard, Addison Derosier, and Lilyanna Eagan all got minutes in the game.
Stevens has outscored their opponents 36-0 over their first five games. “We have a little different alignment in the midfield this year, we are getting better but we still have a long way to go. Nothing will come easy for us this year, we need to play hard every minute and earn everything,” said Antonivich.
Currently, Stevens sits atop of the Division 3 standings, with the meat of their season on the horizon with lots of good teams looking to knock them off. The Cardinals hit the road for their next four games starting at Newport (2-0) on Tuesday, then to Prospect Mountain (2-1) on Friday.
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