BY JONNY WALKER, SPORTS ASSIGNMENT EDITOR
The St. Bonaventure University men’s soccer team lost, 3-0, at Saint Joseph’s University Saturday, officially eliminating the Bonnies from contention for an Atlantic 10 Tournament berth.
The Hawks scored first. The Bonnies failed to register a goal, allowing two second half goals.
“I thought we played well,” said Bonaventure head coach Kwame Oduro. “But playing well doesn’t always equal winning. You have to be able to score goals and eliminate simple … little mistakes that we made.”
In the eighth minute, a Saint Joseph’s player launched a long throw-in into Bonaventure’s 18-yard box. The ball bounced off the head of Hawks defender Garrett Lyons, a graduate student, ricocheted off the shin of fellow defender Kenyatta Collins, a junior, and rolled into the net.
“The first goal we gave up was … I don’t know how to explain it,” said Oduro. “It wasn’t a good start.”
Over the next 54 minutes of game time, the score remained, 1-0.
“Personally, I had a great game even if we lost,” said Bonnies goalkeeper Jules Dechert, a junior. “It probably was the best one of my season. I am proud to have made some difficult and unusual saves that were important to keep the team in the game as long as I could.”
Dechert recorded 7 saves for the game, a career high.
In the 62nd minute, Hawks forward Blake Driehuis, a sophomore, won a race down the left-hand sideline with Bonnies defender David Cubillos. He hit a grounded, left-footed cross towards the top of the 18-yard box. Hawks midfielder Omry Perel, a graduate student, Collected the ball with his right foot and curved it around the Bonaventure defender into Bonaventure’s goal.
“I feel that we struggled to handle the intensity that Saint Joseph’s had,” said Dechert.
In the 71st minute, junior midfielder Ariel Fadar took a free kick from roughly 25 yards out. The ball hit the shoulder of a Bonaventure defender and knocked into the right-hand post. It rolled to Garrett Lyons who hammered it into the lower-right corner of the net.
Against the Hawks, Bonaventure recorded just 10 shots compared to Saint Joseph’s 26,
“We didn’t test the goalkeeper enough,” said Oduro. “The stats show that 55 times we were in their attacking third and only took 10 shots. They were in our defensive third 60 times and had 26 shots.”
Oduro said he has repeatedly emphasized to his players the importance of taking more shots in game throughout the season. Bonaventure’s opponents have nearly doubled the Bonnies in shot attempts this season.
“I’m still trying to figure that part out,” said Oduro. “We have guys that actually strike the ball really, really well. Yet, we have to always say, ‘shoot the ball.’”
The Bonnies host Virginia Commonwealth University Saturday at the Marra Athletics Complex for their final game of the season.
“I think that it would be fair to call this season a failure,” said Dechert. “No matter who you are and who you play for, the goal is always to make the tournament of your conference. We failed this mission.”
Despite no longer being eligible for a playoff berth, Oduro said his focus is still on winning the last game against VCU.
“As far as I can remember being here, we’ve always won a game in conference,” said Oduro. So kind of a lot of motivation for a team. You want to be that team that didn’t win a single game.”
walkercj20@bonaventure.edu
