LONDON, Ont. – A first half goal from Sabrina De Nard and four saves from Megan Girardi led the Western Mustangs to a 1-0 win over the McMaster Marauders on Saturday afternoon at Mustang Field.
 
"McMaster's front three are very dangerous, I think they scored two goals in each of their first two games, so to get a clean sheet today – I'm very happy with that," said Mustangs head coach Martin Painter. "[We need to work on] a little bit more composure, a little bit better decision making and execution offensively, but the ideas are there and I think we're moving in the right direction."
 
The win moves the Mustangs to 2-1-0 on the season, while the Marauders fall to 0-1-2.
 
The first half was a back-and-forth affair with Western holding a 4-3 edge in shots.
 
De Nard broke through for the Mustangs in the 31st minute, finding the back of the net to put Western up 1-0. The goal is the veteran's first of the season, and comes as she's moved up front to play as a forward for the most part so far this year.
 
"It's a bit of a different pace," said De Nard on moving up to forward this season. "I'm really used to playing defence, I've played defence for my whole career here, but it's a different pace for sure."
 
"Sabrina had a great game today," said Painter. "First half she played up front, scored a good goal, and causes problems up front [for the opposition]. When she's at the back…she brings so many qualities in different areas. I thought she did a great job in both spots today. Early in the season we've been using her up front, but after today we might have to rethink that."
 
The Marauders had a chance to tie things up about 10 minutes later when Maila Carboni broke in on the Mustangs net, however Girardi charged out and knocked the ball away to keep the purple and white in front going into the half.
 
Despite scoring chances for both sides in the final 45 minutes, De Nard's first half goal stood as the only one of the game, giving the Mustangs a 1-0 win and handing the Marauders their first defeat of the season.
 
The Mustangs now have more than a week until their next regular season contest, when they'll host the Brock Badgers on Sunday, September 10. Game time is set for 1 p.m. at Mustang Field.
 
"[Next week's game is our] fourth game in a row at home, so getting our second win today with such a young group I think was important in building our self-belief and self-confidence is important with matching the work on the training field. Today's win goes a long way because McMaster is a good team and hopefully our confidence and self-belief is up and we can work hard to get another win next week."