Philip Zoppi – Sports Writer
Southern Connecticut’s women’s soccer team found the back of the net in the last 10 minutes in regulation and defeated Queens College 1-0.
The Owls controlled the game from start to finish as they had 21 shots compared to Queens’ zero shots. Head soccer coach Adam Cohen kept believing that his team was going to break through eventually.
“We were confident,” said Cohen. “We just had to sort out a couple of things out at halftime. The girls were going to get it, they were playing really well.”
Junior midfielder Victoria Conde scored the game-winning goal, but she could not have done it without senior teammate Caroline Staudle. Conde and Staudle performed a classic give and go 15 yards out from the net, and once Conde received the pass back from Staudle she was all alone in front of goal.
Conde wasted no time and buried the shot into the right corner of the net for her second goal of the season.
“I saw Caroline making a run and got her the ball and then she left the perfect assist for me,” said Conde. “Then I saw the goalkeeper go to one side so I just tried to find the other side.”
The score of the game could have been even better for Southern as they continually played keep away from Queens throughout the game. Queens rarely spent any time on Southern’s final third of the pitch, and if they did it was short lived.
Cohen was impressed with the way the back of his team was communicating.
“Great leadership from the back,” said Cohen. “Specifically from Christine Allard and Karoline Peterson. We defended well as a team. We certainly had good leadership and consistent play in the back because Queens have a couple dangerous players so the fact we limited them to zero shots against is really a credit to the players and the leadership.”
On top of limiting Queens to zero shots, Southern did not allow Queens to attempt a corner kick. Southern ended up getting five corner kicks and had chances to score on a few of them. Conde and the team were a bit frustrated that they could not put one home earlier in the game.
“It was really frustrating because we felt like we had a lot of chances to score,” said Conde. “After I scored I was really happy for the team because we were able to get that first goal.”
Besides the goal, Conde had a strong game as she controlled the middle of the field and set up chances for her teammates throughout the game.
Although Southern managed to pick up the win, there was one scary moment during the game. Senior Kieran DeBiase ran into Southern’s bench and couldn’t control stopping in time, and had to miss roughly 10 minutes. It looked as if DeBiase hit her head on the bench but that was not the case.
“She fell into the bench and at first we thought it was her head,” said Cohen. “It turned out it was just her forearm and she ended up being okay, which we were really happy about,”
DeBiase played a key role in the game as she controlled her sideline and was making nice entry passes into Queens’ final third of the field.
However, this past Saturday, the Owls fell to cross-town rivals University of New Haven 2-1. With senior Christine Allard registering the only goal for Southern.
The Owls are set to face off against American International College in an away game on Oct. 7.
Photo credit: SCSU Athletic Communications