BY LOUIS GENOVESE, STAFF WRITER
The St. Bonaventure Men’s Soccer team fell to a 1-5-1 record after losing to No 4. ranked West Virginia on Saturday.
The Bonnies stood their ground in the first half, with goalkeeper Trevor Wilson making incredible saves in the third and eighth minutes. West Virginia, however, would get on the board in the 33rd minute and end the first half 1-0.
Bonnies’ coach Kwame Oduro knew his squad would be in for a hard match considering how good the West Virginia team has been so far this season.
“It’s a team that everyone wants to be like,” said Oduro. “It’s a team that makes very little mistakes when they play, well coached”.
Oduro also knew that his squad had to play great defense since he knew that West Virginia would be on the attack at the start of the game.
“It’s exactly what we expected to happen, they were gonna have the ball more,” said Oduro. “We were gonna set deep and our job was to make the game frustrating for them”.
Despite allowing one goal, men’s soccer believes that they exceeded expectations in the first half. “I think they expect to come into that first half and have multiple goals in the game,” said Oduro, “To be down 1-0 in the first half was okay with us, I think they were more frustrated than we were”.
In the second half, however, the Mountaineers scored three more goals and the Bonnies could not equalize, falling to West Virginia 4-0.
Despite the loss, the men’s soccer team sees their positives as a way to show that they can compete with anybody regardless of ranking.
“When we decide as a unit, as a team, to help each other and communicate, we make it very difficult,” said Oduro. “It doesn’t matter what team we’re playing against”.
Moving forward, Oduro states about what changes he has to make in practices for his squad to push themselves both physically and mentally.
“You think you’re good, and then you go play a team like that, and you’re like maybe I’m not that good,” Oduro said. “So maybe I got to work harder in training, maybe I got to push myself a little bit harder in training.”
Some players took this opportunity to better themselves in ways that took Oduro by surprise. One example hearing that players went out to practice even when being advised to take a day off.
“When we came back, we gave them a day off on Sunday,” said Oduro. “But I’m getting text messages asking me if the field is open.”
Oduro also looks to many of his players, providing examples and motivating the team. One of them being midfielder Francesco Caorsi, who had recorded one of the shots on goal against West Virginia.
“We’re trying to communicate with people because they are different,” said Caorsi. “There are people of different nationalities, older people, younger people, and you have to be good at talking to people in the right way.”
Francesco made sure he had the tools he needed, including a captain’s manual provided by Oduro.
“There are some things that you’re gonna learn as a captain like how to manage the team, how to be the man and take responsibilities,” said Caorsi “If got respected by your teammates it will be easier for everyone on the team to get better.”
Caorsi also talks about how he takes every opportunity to get better even practicing not under Oduro’s watch.
“Every day is a good day to get better, so if you have free time, that doesn’t mean you should stay home if you feel good to go,” Oduro said.
The Bonnies plan to utilize what they learned from playing West Virginia, as they go on the road this Saturday to face off against A-10 rival Rhode Island.
genovelj20@bonaventure.edu
