Friday marked the debut of Matt Saul as new Head Coach of the Alma College Women's Soccer team and the day ended in happiness as the Scots scored two quick second half goals to defeat Carthage College (Wis.) 2-0 in a match played at Wheaton College (Ill.).

"A great result in the end for the girls," said Saul. "We took the best part of 30 minutes to shake off the rust in this, our first competitive game. The response from the players after halftime was fantastic and the second half was a good performance. This will give us a good platform to improve upon."

After a scoreless first half in which both teams played cautiously with few offensive chances, Alma started to stretch the field and became more aggressive in the final 45 minuntes.

At 56:34, Fr. F Whitnee Foote (Mt. Pleasant/Mt. Pleasant), playing in her first collegiate match, put a ball into the upper corner with her left foot from the top of the 18 to give Alma a 1-0 advantage.

Then, just 42 seconds later, Jr. M Agatha Weddle (White Lake/Walled Lake Northern) put in a goal off of a scramble in front of the net, assisted by Jr. D Allison Smith (Commerce Township/Walled Lake Northern).

Just like that, the Scots led 2-0 and cruised to the victory behind some solid defensive play in front of So. GK Logen Poniatoski (Williamsburg/Liberty), who played the second half to earn the victory. Fr. GK Jenna Fassbender (Mattawan/Mattawan) was in net the first 45 minutes and each goalie had one save during their playing time.

Overall, Alma had eight shots on goal (13 total shots), while Carthage had the two SOG on 12 total shots. Weddle paced the team with two shots on goal, while six others tallied one. Weddle and So. M Jessica Burg (Grand Ledge/Grand Ledge) each had three total shots.

The Scots had eight fouls, while Carthage finished with five, while Alma had the advantage in corner kicks by a four to two margin.

Alma plays host #6 Wheaton College tomorrow afternoon beginning at 5:30 p.m. The team will open up home action on September 5, when they host Aurora University at Scotland Yard.