The Ontario Colleges support staff strike had a province-wide impact, including delaying the start of the Ontario College Athletics Association's competition season. However, it did not seem to have an effect on the Fanshawe Falcons women's soccer team as they defeated the Niagara Knights 7-0 in their first game of the regular season.

The Falcons scored in the first minute of the game and never looked back. They scored four more goals before halftime en route to their victory. Five different Fanshawe players found the back of the net in the game.

When asked if the strike may have helped the team, head coach Martin Painter had mixed feelings. "It did but it didn't; it helped us prepare, and we have a lot of firstyear players, so it was nice in a way to give the team more time to bond. Also we have a lot of depth, which allows us to get good workouts playing 11 on 11, which I think a lot of other teams can't do. But it's always nice to get the games in and when the season finally started there was a lot of excitement."

With goals coming from five different players, this team showed a lot of depth in their first game. According to Painter, this was expected. "I knew we had a lot of depth. We had five different goal scorers today and players we expected to score didn't score, so I don't expect anyone on this team to carry the load."

Moving forward, there are some things Painter would like to see his team improve on. "We need to be more efficient finishing in front of the net. We scored seven goals today, but we could have scored more. When we play better teams, we're definitely going to have to do a better job finishing on our scoring chances."

The Falcons faced off against defending champions the Humber Hawks on the road on October 1. Fanshawe won't return home until October 12, when they face the St. Clair Saints.