Aquinas scored three goals off of set pieces on Saturday evening and that proved to be the difference as the Saints defeated the Gray Wolves 3-0 at the Aquinas Athletic Field in Grand Rapids, Mich.
"Aquinas is a very strong and well-organized team," head coach
Matt Johnson said afterwards. "We knew they have the capability to damage on set pieces and they showed that, scoring on three of them. We fought hard to climb back into it in the second half down two, but they managed the game well and made it difficulty for us to create scoring chances."
The Saints struck first in the 30
th minutes as Liam Travers headed home a free kick from Theo Maye. Maye then took a free kick of his own with 4:24 to play before intermission, scoring in the bottom left corner of the net.
Aquinas added a third goal with 21:03 to play as Maye sent a corner kick in that Josh Freeman-Wright got his head on for the match's final tally.
Lourdes finished the match with a 12-10 shot advantage, with
Leon Eisert (Leipzig, Germany/Kathe-Kollwitz Gymnasium) striking four of the, two of which were on goal. The Gray Wolves also had a 5-4 edge in corner kicks.
Jorge Mendoza (Houston, Texas/Houston Heights H.S.) made five saves in goal for the Gray Wolves while Antonio Strassioto made four stops for Aquinas (7-2, 6-2 WHAC).
"Things don't get any easier for us, as we now look forward to hosting another quality WHAC opponent in Madonna on Wednesday," Johnson added.
Lourdes (8-6-1, 5-3-1) will close out the home portion of the regular season on Wednesday afternoon against Madonna, with kickoff set for 2 p.m. at Wildcat Stadium.
