Always a favorite in the Four Rivers Conference soccer race, the Union Wildcats (6-4, 2-0) have started the season with league victories in the first two games.
Union beat St. Clair Tuesday in Union, 4-0, and then triumphed at Sullivan Thursday, 6-1.
The Wildcats host Pacific on Tuesday before starting the second half of the league season at St. Clair next Thursday.
“The next week will tell a lot as to what the conference standings will be,” Union Head Coach Matt Fennessey said. “You can’t look past anyone.”
Union-St. Clair
On Tuesday, the Wildcats defeated St. Clair, 4-0.
“We wanted to start off conference play in a positive way,” said Fennessey. “We knew (St. Clair Head Coach) Ted (Koenigsfeld) has kids who can score goals. It was not easy to shut them down.”
Union scored twice in each half.
Nick Schumaker scored Union’s first goal with Nathan Saleniuc assisting.
Jordan Nowak scored the next goal with Nathan McKinney assisting.
Andrew Lenau scored unassisted in the second half.
The final goal came from Kyle Baughman with Saleniuc drawing the assist.
Dillen Myers recorded the shutout in goal.
“We actually played one of our better games so far this year,” Fennessey said. “We had good ball control and moved the ball well. I was impressed with the way we used our wings to attack and moved through the middle of the field.”
Reno Jones was in goal for St. Clair (5-9, 0-2).
“We learned a lot about Union and look forward to playing them again at our place,” said St. Clair Head Coach Ted Koenigsfeld. “Our kids were not pleased with our effort. They were just as disappointed as I was and that’s a good thing.”
Union-Sullivan
The Wildcats scored four times in a busy first half Thursday at Sullivan to lead 4-1 at the intermission. Union added two goals in the second half.
Andrei Ciot scored twice while Alex Ciot, Schumaker and Saleniuc also scored goals.
Sullivan contributed to the Union cause with an own goal.
Alex Ciot, Schumaker and Emmett Parker earned assists.
Dillen Myers made 15 saves in goal to record the win.
Sullivan’s statistics were not available as of press time.
St. Clair-Warrenton
St. Clair lost Wednesday to Warrenton, 4-0.
“We competed much better than we did against Union. The difference between Tuesday and Wednesday was night and day,” Koenigsfeld said. It was a 1-0 game with 25 minutes left in the second half. Our marks were better and we communicated well. We played so hard, we just ran out of gas at the end of the game.”
