Monday, October 16, 2023
by Thomas Lal

PORTLAND, Ore. – For the first time since the start of the conference slate, preseason favorite Simon Fraser is on top of the men’s soccer standings after earning GNAC Team of the Week honors with a pair of winning performances.

The Red Leafs opened their week with a 3-1 win over Seattle Pacific on the road Thursday before returning home on Sunday to shut out Western Oregon, 3-0. The pair of wins extended Simon Fraser’s win streak to four matches and their unbeaten stretch to seven. The Red Leafs have scored multiple goals in five of those seven games, outscoring opponents 17-4 since Sept. 14.

Head coach Clint Schneider is very happy with the team’s performances last week and across the season and acknowledges the strength of competition as a driving factor in the team’s preparation through the year.

“It is an honor to be nominated for team of the week and we certainly don’t take it for granted,” Schneider said. “We put in a lot of work to put ourselves into a position to win games in our conference, which is extremely difficult so I’m obviously very happy for our team. But it's certainly not lost on them or myself that the ultimate prize is still a long ways away and winning the conference still requires a lot of sacrifice, a lot of hard work and comes with having the right mentality every day.”

On Thursday, Simon Fraser faced Seattle Pacific for the first time this season and cruised to victory after a pair of early goals. Senior forward Devin O’Hea opened the scoring for SFU with his fourth goal of the season in the 10th minute before adding an assist on junior midfielder Hamish Ogden’s tally in the 18th minute. The Red Leafs carried their 2-0 advantage into the half and freshman forward Koji Poon put the game beyond doubt in the 82nd minute after the Falcons cut the lead in half earlier in the second frame.

On Saturday, the Red Leafs rose to the occasion, defeating the red-hot Wolves 3-0 in a rare Sunday match. Simon Fraser dominated the run of play, outshooting Western Oregon 21-9, finally finding the back of the net in the second half. It was freshman forward Michael Hennessy who broke the stalemate on an assist from O’Hea in the 49th minute with a long curling shot from just outside the box that found the top-right netting.

Simon Fraser doubled its advantage less than 10 minutes later with Poon scoring his sixth of the season in the 57th minute after yet another O’Hea assist. O’Hea wasn’t done adding to the scoresheet, however, scoring his fifth goal of the season in the 81st minute to seal the victory. The goal was not only O’Hea’s fifth of the year, but his fifth in five matches after scoring once in every previous conference match this season.

Leading the defensive effort in both games for Simon Fraser was senior goalkeeper and reigning GNAC Defensive Player of the Week Justyn Sandhu who made seven saves across the week. Sandhu opened his week with a pair of saves in SFU’s 3-1 win over Seattle Pacific before making five stops to claim his GNAC-leading fifth shutout of the year.

With the pair of wins, Simon Fraser (7-2-2, 4-0-1 GNAC) is the only undefeated team in conference play. The Red Leafs sit at the top of the conference standings and are level with Western Oregon on 13 points, but hold a slim advantage with a superior overall winning percentage.

The Red Leafs split yet another week between home and road this week as they travel to face Saint Martin’s on Thursday before returning to Burnaby to host Montana State Billings on Saturday.