Call it lucky number seven.
The SFU Clan men’s soccer team improved to 7-0 behind a 2-1 win over the Saint Martin’s Saints on Saturday.
Goals from Mamadi Camara and Kyle Jones proved to be the difference in the road game, as SFU collected its second Great Northwest Athletic Conference victory to maintain a red-hot start to the 2016 season.
“That was as good a footballing performance as I can remember from this team,” said SFU coach Clint Schneider. “We didn’t finish as well as we would have liked, but overall, that was a terrific showing from the guys.”
The Burnaby Mountain squad’s dominance was evident in the score box – SFU launched 19 shots towards SMU goalie Griffin Small, while the Saints managed just seven at Clan keeper Brandon Watson.
The Clan struck early, starting just six minutes into the contest. Freshman striker Riley Pang made a terrific hold-up play to draw a defender before feeding Adam Jones on the right flank. The midfielder quickly put it into the middle of the SMU box, where Camara beat Small for his fifth goal of the season.
Small made a handful of big stops before Kyle Jones netted the SFU insurance goal in the 75th minute. After Michael North was jostled down inside the SMU area, the younger Jones brother stepped to the spot and buried it for his first goal of the season.
“Last year, not capitalizing on so many chances, this is the kind of (game) that we might have lost. We might not get ten chances every night, but the elite teams manage to makes the ones they do get count.,” remarked Schneider.
“But this is different, this group is different. I’ve said all along that they have a chance to be something special, and if we can continue to clean up our mistakes as we go, this year could be a lot of fun.”
The Clan’s next test is Thursday when they host Oregon’s Concordia University Cavaliers (3-1-1), 7 p.m. at SFU’s Terry Fox field.S
