By Gavin Lindahl
Sports Assignment Editor
The St. Bonaventure women’s soccer team split its weekend with one win and one loss at the Cornell Tournament.
The squad lost its opening match to Temple University, 1-0, but the Bonnies rebounded the following day by shutting out Virginia Military Institute with a 2-0 win.
Temple outshot the Bonnies 24-5, but according to Coach Steve Brdarski, it wasn’t Temple’s shooting – with only six of their 24 shots on target – that did the Bonnies in.
“If you look at where [Temple] was taking some of their shots from – more importantly if you look at where some of their shots ended – if you have 24 shots, [our goalkeeper] should have had more saves than three. They were shooting from everywhere they could” Brdarski said. “But we could have kept possession a little bit better. We were a little bit careless with the ball, but we were pretty organized for the most part.”
According to Brdarski, the team rebounded in the last 15 minutes of the match. The Bonnies had a good opportunity to score an equalizer within the last two minutes but were called on an offsides. Temple went on to win the tournament and is currently boasting a perfect 6-0 record.
Freshmen forward Danielle Vis recorded her third game-winning goal last Saturday in the second half against VMI. Vis’ three goals have been good enough to make her the team’s leading scorer so far. Freshmen midfielder Reilly Dougherty scored an insurance goal 16 minutes after Vis’ tally, giving the Bonnies a 2-0 lead to close out the game.
Although Brdarski says the team isn’t as far along offensively as he’d like to see, it has improved, and he was impressed with what he saw from his squad.
“VMI is one of those teams that can be very stubborn [on defense], but we hit their post twice in the first 20 minutes – both off the crossbar. I thought we could’ve been a little bit better with our chances,” Brdarski said. “We were getting past them, we were beating them and we created a lot of corner kicks. It was a game where I thought we dictated play, we did a great job and we scored a great goal.”
Senior forward Molly Curry has returned to the field for the Bonnies after missing time with injury, something that Brdarski believes has been big for the team. Although no players are newly injured, several are playing through some lingering issues. Brdarski also says that junior midfielder Alex Meader’s absence hit hard. Meader suffered a season-ending injury earlier this year and was not able to travel with the team.
“[Meader is] the type of kid that, on the field, you respect how competitive she is. This is a good group, I like this group, but not having her on the bus was a little hard for us to deal with. We’re used to her being a big part of what we do, and we’re excited to have her back with us this weekend.”
The Bonnies will play Binghamton at home at 7 tonight under the lights of the McGraw-Jennings turf field – a first for the squad. Following the night game, the Bonnies will hit the road and play U. Mass-Lowell at 1 p.m. on Sunday. These two games are the last to prepare the Bonnies for A-10 Conference play starting next month.
lindahg12@bonaventure.edu
