The Medicine Hat Rattlers men’s soccer team was dealt its first setback of the Alberta Colleges Athletics Conference season in a 1-0 loss to the SAIT Trojans Saturday, but they bounced back to split their weekend on the road with Sunday’s 2-1 win over the Olds Broncos.
While they received four yellow cards in the game, the Rattlers escaped with Sunday’s narrow victory thanks to a pair of goals from Raouf Mohamed.
Olds’ Fabian Gromenida opened the scoring in the 14th minute to leave the Rattlers staring down a deficit, but Mohamed answered back 12 minutes later than took over the lead in the 37th minute.
Rattlers goalkeeper Joao Batista had his work cut out for him, taking a late yellow card and stopping 12 shots from the Broncos to lock up the victory. Ryan Murphy stopped eight shots for Olds in the loss.
Batista also made eight saves Saturday, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Trojans from sending them into the loss column.
SAIT’s Eduardo Filho netted Saturday’s only goal in the 21st minute, while Trojans keeper Marko Ilich turned away four shots from the Rattlers to secure the clean sheet.
The split weekend leaves MHC sitting third in the ACAC South standings with a 3-1-1 record. Lethbridge and SAIT are tied for first at 4-1-0.
MHC’s women’s soccer team was forced to settle for a single point over the weekend after taking the Trojans to a 3-3 draw Saturday then falling 1-0 to the Broncos Sunday.
The Rattlers jumped to a 2-0 lead over SAIT in Saturday’s first half, with Jadyn Fode kicking off the scoring in the 19th minute followed by a goal from Maisa Rebello in the 31st.
SAIT’s Jade Metz scored twice to knot things up at the half then Mackenzie Georgsen took over the lead in the 77th minute, but Fode managed to net a clutch equalizer in the 87th minute to give Medicine Hat a point in the standings.
Amanda Oevering made seven stops in net for the Rattlers, while Amy Offredi turned away four for SAIT.
Medicine Hat ran into a hot keeper Sunday, sending 17 shots at Olds’ Jewels Hallock in a shutout loss.
Oevering was almost equally busy in the setback, stopping 13 of the 14 shots she faced.
Olds’ Katharina Oeltermann potted Sunday’s only goal, lifting the Broncos to first in the ACAC south with a 5-1-0 record.
Medicine Hat is now fourth in the South at 2-2-1.
The Rattlers return to the Snake Pit to host the rival Lethbridge Kodiaks Saturday. The women take the pitch at noon, followed by the men at 2 p.m.
