Today: Mar 28, 2024

Women’s soccer team falls to College of Saint Rose, 2-1

Edgar Ayala – Sports Writer

After leading at halftime against the No. 17 nationally ranked team, Southern Connecticut’s women’s soccer team fell short to the College of Saint Rose 2-1 in overtime, this past Saturday afternoon.

 

Christine Allard’s goal in the 19th minute wasn’t enough to put away Saint Rose, as the Golden Knights capitalized on opportunities in the 51st and 99th minute of extra time to give the Owls their eighth loss of the season.  

“No one is happy with the loss,” said head coach, Adam Cohen.  “I’m just very happy with the effort, the commitment and belief of the team.”  

Southern entered the field without losing in their past three games. But Saint Rose was too much to handle, as they downed the Owls to an overall record of 5-8-1, while the Golden Knights improve to 12-2-2 on the season.  

And with only two games left in the regular season, the Owls drop to ninth place in the Northeast-10 Conference.  With only the top eight teams advancing to the NE-10 tournament.  

Southern managed to get on the scoreboard first on a dead ball opportunity. From a corner kick, forward Maeghan Howard crossed the ball into the far left post for Allard to then jump and header the ball right past the goalkeeper.  Making it Allard’s second goal of the season.   

“We had scouted Saint Rose and set up our corner plays based on where we thought their weaknesses might be,” said junior captain, Allard. “Maeghan played a great ball into the box, and I knew myself or one of my teammates was going to finish it.”

Several minutes after the Owls were leading 1-0, came a shot by the Golden Knights’ Morgan Burchhardt, shooting the ball just high and hit the field goal post behind the goal net.   

Nearly half an hour into the first half came a chance that could have been 2-0 for the Owls.  Sophomore Victoria Buonanni crossed the ball into the box, when a Saint Rose defender attempt to clear the ball almost resulted in a near own goal. The ball hit the bottom of the top right crossbar, and ricocheted back down to hit the goal line.  

While Southern had a 1-0 lead heading into the break, Allard said Coach Cohen told the team at halftime that their job was still far from over.  

“We knew that the second half was going to be much more difficult than the first, both physically and mentally,” Allard said.  

But six minutes into the second half the Golden Knights leveled the score 1-1.  After several attempts by the Owls to clear the ball, Nicole Shively volleyed the ball into the bottom left corner from the top of the box.  

The Owls responded right back in the 60th minute when Kieran DeBiase dribbled down the field and created some space for her to smash a right-footed shot to the goalkeeper’s right side, Saint Rose’s Madison Taylor making a highlight save in return.  

The game came to a close in the first half of overtime.  Golden Knights’ Kristin Carr scored the game-winner, when she had a breakaway pass from Jennifer Busk, chipping the ball into the bottom right post.   

“Our goal now is to win the next two,” said Coach Cohen.  “We have two more regular season games, so we got to try to score and win the opponent’s opportunities.”

The lady Owls final game of the season comes this Saturday on Halloween against Bentley University at Jess Dow Field.  

Photo Credit: Tyler Korponai – Photo Editor 

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