DAVID LARKINS, Wesmen Athletics

After the longest of layoffs, the Winnipeg Wesmen will have to be happy with a point out of their first weekend back in competition.

Taneil Gay scored two first-half goals and the Saskatchewan Huskies defeated the Wesmen women's soccer team 4-0 in Canada West conference action Sunday at the Ralph Cantafio Soccer Complex.

The Wesmen, who earned a draw in their opener on Saturday, were under siege early and the Huskies found their finishing touch.

Gay took advantage of a back-row turnover and sprinted in alone on keeper Taryn Raabe to score the first goal of the weekend in the 14th minute. Twenty-five minutes later, she converted again to make it 2-0, and Jade Houmphanh added to the tally with a goal one minute after that.

Reserve Marie Kilcher rounded out the scoring with a goal in the 66th.

Wesmen head coach Amy Anderson said her team's fatigue from its first back-to-back since 2019 was evident.

"We for sure were tanked today and I think it's to be expected considering the obvious that we haven't played in a couple of years," Anderson said. "The girls came out blaring (Saturday). Credit to Saskatchewan, they came out with quality and that's going to happen. We're going to learn from this game. We're going to be better in the next few weeks as a result of this game."

The Huskies, meanwhile, were more clinical in finishing off their opportunities and looked the part of a side picked to be the highest-ranked of the East Division.

"I think the girls were just a lot more settled in," U of S head coach Jerson Barandica-Hamilton said. "We switched up a little bit of formation. You've gotta give credit to Winnipeg. We wanted to try something new as yesterday they got a result and I thought it worked well. It was fun to watch the girls score some goals and just play with the confidence they did."

The Wesmen again got some newcomers their first Canada West action. Hasana Church, a transfer from Brandon University, and Rachel Bridle and Mira Cerilli-Koroluk, both Class of 2020 recruits, made appearances in the second half, their first as Wesmen.

Now Winnipeg turns its attention to its first out-of-province road trip since Oct. 6, 2019, when the Wesmen head to Regina to take on the Cougars Sept. 18-19.

"I'm thrilled to have the point," Anderson said. "You want to get points when you can and we were able to do that (Saturday) so I told the players to keep their heads up because we got a point against a quality team."

Raabe finished the day with six saves, while Jadyn Steinhauer made two saves in the Saskatchewan net.

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