Albany, NY - Both soccer teams played their first home games of the season on Tuesday night against the Word of Life Huskies. The women kicked off at 5pm followed by the men two hours later.
Barely 5 minutes into the first game, sophomore
Mya Wright (Liverpool, NY) scored a runaway goal, then about ten minutes later had an assist to teammate
Ka'ena Kehano (Wailuku, HI) for a goal to jump to an early 2-0 lead. The first half was a lot of back and forth between the Panthers and the Huskies which ended in a halftime tie, thanks to back-to-back goals by Huskies player Aubrey Carniglia. After some halftime adjustments, the Panthers came out firing, scoring back-to-back goals of their own by 6th year
Julia Roemer (Latham, NY) to retake a 2-point lead. The Panthers prowess proved to be too much for the Huskies as they only got 7 shots from that point onward, a number that was nearly doubled by the Panthers in the same time frame. About halfway through the second half, Wright connected with Kehano for a second time, giving Wright her second assist and Kehano her second goal of the day. Then with about 5 minutes to go, Roemer secured her hat-trick thanks to a beautiful pass from teammate
Raegan Wendel (Clifton Park, NY) to give the Panthers a 6-2 victory.
After the game, new head coach Manny Oduor had high praise for his team, "Going forward we're a good team... overall we looked good - the concepts we implemented in practice are showing." This was Oduor's first home win as the new head coach of the team, after previously working as the assistant men's soccer coach.
After the women secured their first home win, it was the men's turn. The men's game started out very physical, recording a total of three yellow cards and a red card in the first half alone. The back and forth between the two teams resulted in no score at the half, but this is the jungle and huskies do not belong in a jungle. Not even 15 seconds into the second half, Panthers senior
Jay Carlson (Saratoga Springs, NY), scored the first goal of the game. About seven minutes later, team captain
Sam Rowley (Queensbury, NY) scored a goal on a rebound from teammate
Firaas Anis (Brooklyn, NY) to give the Panthers a 2-0 lead. The Panthers continued to overwhelm the Huskies, allowing only 3 shots in the entre second half, one of which was a goal by Joseph Mathews. However, the Panthers responded quickly by scoring a goal of their own, this time by senior
Sahil Arora (Waterford, NY). The game ended with a score of 3-1 in favor of the Panthers.
Head coach John Adeseko had this to say about the physicality of the game, "My boys are smart, they know when to fight... we did a good job of fighting back... we used our heads and know when to push back and when to play smart." This was the first win of the season for the men after tying in their previous two games.
Both teams will have a few days to rest and prepare themselves before they travel to Maine together to take on SMCC on Saturday afternoon.
How to follow the Panthers: For the latest information on ACPHS athletics, visit acphspanthers.com or check out the ACPHS athletics social media platforms on Instagram @ACPHSPanthers or X @ACPHSAthletics.
Written by Angelo Oddo.
