By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — For the St. Bonaventure women’s soccer team, its game against St. Joseph’s followed a similar script.
Once again, the Bonnies were able to get out to a positive start, jumping on the scoreboard first — just like they did last time out against Fordham. But from then on, as head coach Melissa Sherwood admitted, a lack of composure induced by a sense of panic allowed for the Hawks to not only get a foothold in the contest, but come back to win the whole thing — just as the Rams did as well.
“Once again, we get the opening goal, which is a positive, but we crumble after that, and it’s something that we have to fix,” Sherwood said. “It’s a mental thing, whether you get too emotional or too focused or are not being tough enough, whatever it is, we have to figure it out quick. We only got three games to figure it out.”
Bona’s Daniela Bruna Ribeiro de Souza opened the scoring on the back of a free kick just outside the penalty area on the left wing. Her ball was well-placed into a dangerous area and after not being touched, nestled into the side netting.
Unfortunately, the positive spirits were not long-lived. Just a minute later, St. Joseph’s Chelsea Leal found herself in space and fired a dangerous ball across the face of the Bona goal which, after taking an unfortunate deflection off Hannah Lindenberger, rippled the back of the net.
The Hawks continued to apply the pressure throughout the first half of action, and ultimately dealt the Bonnies’ hopes of getting to the intermission with a tie, a significant blow, as Natalee Vicari scored mere seconds before the break.
“They score with less than a minute to go (in the first half) and it’s the difference between going into halftime being disappointed that it’s 1-1, to now then being one down, which is obviously even worse,” Sherwood said. “It’s deflating, but I think at halftime the team needed to still be positive, as it was just some little things that we needed to adjust and tighten up.”
St. Bonaventure’s Ekemini Udofa (29) chases down a St. Joseph’s midfielder. (Spencer Bates)
But the spirits of the Bona players never did rise after St. Joe’s second goal. The Hawks, even after receiving a red card and going down to 10 players, were the ones dictating the affair. And in the 82nd minute, all hope for a Bona comeback evaporated as St. Joe’s Sarah Fisher hammered home after making an unmarked run into the box.
“It was a complete lack of composure on our part,” Sherwood said. “I think it probably comes from the fact that the players wanted it so much, that I think they probably lacked composure instead of (understanding) there’s lots of time left on the clock. … I think they felt like they had to score immediately, and that obviously let them down. They started rushing and panicking, rather than just being slow and composed and confident. … When you have young players, a young team, it’s a tough lesson that they have to learn.”
Time is now of the essence for the Bonnies. With only three more chances to pick up their first Atlantic 10 win of the season, Sherwood noted it will take a dedicated effort by all involved in the program if they want to get back on track.
“We have three games left to go, we just have to keep going,” Sherwood said. “We have to give everything, prepare for every game trying to win it. That’s the challenge for all of us, collectively, the players, coaches and staff, nothing changes. … If we’re not going to do that, then we may as well just all pack up and go home now.”
St. Bonaventure will hit the road to face Dayton on Oct. 19 for its next game. Kick off there is set for 1 p.m.
