WOMEN’S SOCCER

The Forester women’s soccer team enjoyed a 3-1 win over Saint Francis Wednesday afternoon at King Stadium. It’s HU’s first league win this season as they improve to 5-8-3 overall, 1-6-1 in CL play. Since 2017, Huntington has posted five wins and a tie over USF.

The loss drops the Cougars to 2-12-1 overall which includes an 0-8 record against league foes.

While the visitors struck early to snag a quick 1-0 lead, HU didn’t get rattled. Instead, they answered the call five minutes later when Grace Gibson, after receiving a throw in, served the ball into the six. Mary Kotter beat the keeper to it and coolly slipped it past her for the 1-1 stalemate.

Thirteen minutes later, HU stole the lead when Madeline Gile received a long pass from Kalaina Stephens at midfield and after outsprinting a pair of USF defenders, put the finishing touches on the fast break by slotting the ball near post for a 2-1 advantage that stuck.

Reagan Sanderson put the exclamation point on the day with an easy tap-in compliments of a perfectly placed pass from Avery Giguere eight minutes into the second half. It extended Sanderson’s scoring streak to three consecutive matches and put the game out of reach.

Ireland Aerni, who tracked down nine saves, notched the win in frame for Lewis’ squad.

“The team has trained hard this week under less than ideal conditions,” said Coach David Lewis. “It was good to see them rewarded with a conference win.

“It now comes down to Saturday’s match with Goshen. It should be an exciting senior recognition game!”

With only Goshen remaining on HU’s regular season schedule, the stakes couldn’t be higher. The winner earns the eighth and final spot in the CL tournament while a tie would give Huntington the advantage. The two squads face off at 1:00 p.m. at King Stadium. The Foresters head into the weekend holding the eighth spot in the standings.