The soccer X-Men began the AUS season on a winning note as they defeated Memorial 2-1 and UPEI 2-0 on home turf in the first two regular season games of the year.
Saturday afternoon against Memorial, Kareem Henry opened the scoring in the game with an early goal six minutes in. Michael Marousek assisted on the play. After the X-Men taking the 1-0 half-time lead into the locker room, the Seahawks came back ready to play in the second half. Steven Delong got Memorial on the board with an unassisted goal in the 51st minute, tying the game at 1-1.
The lead was short lived however, as the X-Men were awarded a penalty kick after Henry was taken down inside the 18 yard box. StFX striker Michael Marousek came through on the ensuing penalty shot, beating Seahawks keeper Luke Olmstead low as the ball snuck into the corner of the net.
The X-Men were able to hang on to the 2-1 lead and the victory. Andrew MacDonald earned his first win of the season in nets for StFX while freshman midfielder Andrew (A.J.) Gray picked up Player of the Game honors for his consistent game play.
In their second game of the weekend, the X-Men picked up a 2-0 victory over the CIS ranked No. 7 UPEI Panthers. Marousek scored both goals for StFX, picking up a total of three over the course of two days.
His first goal came in the 12th minute of the game off a header and assisted ball from Ryan Casey. The other came late in the first half in the 40th minute as Marousek found the ball outside the 18 yard box, turned quickly and beat Panthers keeper David Feener with a quick and high, hard shot.
The two teams then played a scoreless second half though the game became more physical and tempers flared as a total of eight yellow cards were handed out in the game. The X-Men outshot the Panthers by a 9-2 margin and MacDonald earned his second win of the weekend. Marousek was named the Subway Player of the Game for StFX.
With the two wins, the X-Men picked up six points in the standings and currently sit in an early tie for first place along with Saint Mary’s (2-0-0). They will travel to New Brunswick next weekend for games against UNB (1-1-0) and Moncton (0-1-1).