The University of St. Thomas women's soccer faced off against the Wiley Wildcats on Thursday, October 25th in the team's annual Kick Cancer game in support of breast cancer awareness. The Celts came out on top of their second-to-last home game of the regular season with a strong 5-2 win.
Celts forward Katarina Maksimov (JR/Richmond, TX) wasted no time, finding the back of the net off of a through ball by Rachael Bell (SR/Houston, TX) in just the 5th minute of the match. This was eight goal this season for Maksimov. The Wildcats answered in the 18th minute on a free kick just outside of the box taken by Miguianne Boldrin. As the game progressed, Celts missed few key opportunities to take the lead but kept controlling most of the play. Wildcats found some success on the counterattack in the 30th minute were awarded a penalty kick. Boldrin made no mistake and put Wiley up 2-1.
The Celts were not done yet though and equalized with just 4 minutes left in the first half thanks to an unrelenting effort by Alexa Noyola (SR/Houston, TX). Teams went to the halftime break with Celts holding 11 to 5 advantage in shots (7 to 4 advantage in shots on goal). Noyola, Maksimov and Siobhan Higgins (SR/Katy, TX) lead the team in shots with 4, 3 and two respectively. Goalkeeper Jordan Thompson (SR/Spring, TX) made two saves in the first half for the Celts.
Energized after the halftime break, the University of St. Thomas women's soccer team took the field with Emma Pinkerton (SR/Kingwood, TX) coming in for injured Jordan Thompson. The Celts then came alive, with Maksimov heading in a corner by Siobhan Higgins just 40 seconds into the half. Maksimov then assisted another goal by Noyola just minutes later to put the home team up 4-2. Noyola was not done yet, scoring her third goal of the match less than a minute after to round out the hat-trick and put the game out of reach for the Wildcats. The beginning of the second half against the Wildcats marked the most prolific three minutes in Celts women's soccer history and was enough to change the dynamics of the game entirely.
Despite several chances for both Celts and very talented Wiley College team, the final score stayed 5-2 in favor of the home team. The Celts defense also shut down Wiley in the second half, limiting the away team to 5 shots on goal. Pinkerton made five saves for the Celts. The game also saw transfer goalkeeper Emily Garza (JR/Houston, TX) get her first minutes between the posts.
The University of St. Thomas Celts move to 9-0-1 in the RRAC and play their last match of the regular season this Saturday, October 27, 5:30 pm at Houston Sports Park against Texas A&M – Texarkana. The Celts look to remain unbeaten in the conference as they celebrate nine seniors in their last home game. Check out the current RRAC Women's Soccer Standings here.
