October 18, 2022, Welland - The Niagara Knights women's soccer team wrapped up regular season play with a 6-3-1 record last week in two road games against the first-place Humber Hawks on Wednesday night, and Conestoga College Saturday afternoon.
Heading into Wednesday's tilt, the Hawks were 7-0-2 before the match and ranked 4th nationally by the CCAA.
Humber struck first to go up 1-0 on the Knights before Sydney Sica netted her first of the night to tie things up before the half time whistle. Tensions were running high with yellow cards being handed out to both teams as the Hawks and Knights desperately tried to break through and get on top to take the lead. Eventually Humber's Catarina Medeiros netted her second of the night late in the second half to go up 2-1. Humber's lead would be short lived before the Knights were awarded a penalty kick in the 84th minute where Sica scored her second of the match.
The Hawks and Knights played to a 2-2 draw, handing Humber their third tie of the season (7-0-3), while Niagara recorded their second at 5-3-1.
The Knights then travelled to Kitchener, Ont. Saturday afternoon for their final game of the regular season for a rematch with the Conestoga Condors. Niagara was out for revenge after Conestoga spoiled the Knights home opening game back on Sept 9th with a 3-1 loss.
Sica once again got the Knights on the board on an assist from Megan Morgado to get out to an early lead on the Condors. The blue and white carried their 1-0 lead through the rest of the first half. Sica notched her second of the day to start the second half to put the Knights up 2-0, before second-year defender Victoria Maciel netted her first career goal late to seal the deal at 3-0.
Sierra Naccarato recorded her third shut-out of the 2022-2023 campaign.
Sica's brilliant play through the Knights final regular season home games will rewrite the Knight's women's soccer record books. On Oct 7th Sica became the Knights All-Time leading scorer, breaking former teammate Terin Hultink's previous record of 16. Sica finished the year with 21 goals in 19 total career games for the blue and white. Sica also marked another milestone with most goals scored in a single season with 12 in 10 games, previously held by Jackie Lawther (2015-2016) with 9 goals in 10 games.
Finishing third in the OCAA West division, the Knights will now play host to the 6th place East division team, George Brown (4-4-2) in a cross-over match Saturday Oct 22 at 2pm. Winner of Saturday's match will advance to the OCAA Championships Oct 27-30 at Durham College.
