October 3, 2021...WELLAND - The Niagara College women's soccer team cruised to a 5-0 win over the Sheridan Bruins Saturday afternoon to lock up first place in the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) South Division with a 5-0 record.
With the win, the Knights secure a bye through the cross-over round of playoffs and will host a quarter-final match up at home Saturday October 23rd.
Niagara opened the scoring in the 18th minute mark of the first half with a free kick from 25 yards out by Terin Hultink to go up 1-0. Sheridan managed to stave off the Knights through the remainder of the half to trail just 1-0.
The second half saw the Knights come out firing on all cylinders with Sydney Sica popping one by Sheridan's keeper at the 51 minute mark. From there, it was all Sica and Hultink.
Hultink scored her second of the afternoon at the 63 minute mark, before Sica added her second of the day just one minute later to make it 4-0. Hultink would go on to complete the hat trick and add her third of the afternoon just before the final whistle for a 5-0 finale.
Sica and Hultink currently sit with eight goals each, combining for 16 of the Knights 18 goals this season.
Goalkeeper Sierra Nacarrato earned her third shut-out of the year with just two goals against in 5 games.
"We played a solid game today," said head coach Rob Lalama. "As the game went on, we got better, stayed calm and there was never a sense of panic"
The Knights will have a bit of a rest before they finish of thier regular season at home and look to complete a perfect 6-0 season record when they kick off against Redeemer Friday night.