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Women’s soccer defeats Le Moyne 3-2 in last 39 seconds

Caroline Staudle scoring the second goal for Southern's 3-2 win against Le Moyne College.

Philip ZoppiSports Writer

Senior Kieran DeBiase of Southern’s women’s soccer team scored a goal with 39 seconds left in regulation and propelled the Owls over Le Moyne College by a score of 3-2 on Wednesday, Oct. 12.  

“There was about a minute left and Le Moyne’s center backs were kind of far apart from each other,” said DeBiase on the game-winning play. “Maeghan Howard played the ball through and it hit off one of their defenders. I was about to go down with it for a foul, but there was only about 30 seconds left so I took it and shot it into the top right of the net.”

Southern trailed for most of this game and had trouble converting scoring chances throughout. That changed with three and a half minutes left when Caroline Staudle, Southern’s leading goal scorer, knotted things up at 2-2.

Head coach for Southern’s women’s soccer team, Adam Cohen, was impressed with the way Staudle played all game.

“Caroline has been awesome the past few games,” said Cohen. “She’s very good and has been dominating to the point where other teams really have to respect her.”

Staudle’s goal may not have even been her best contribution to the team. Without her, the Owls’ first goal at the end of the first half would not have happened.

Staudle played a beautiful ball through defenders that set up freshman, Juliana Templeman, in perfect position to put the Owls on the scoreboard.

Before this scoring spree by Southern, there was plenty of drama between Le Moyne’s head coach Carrie Bonus and the referees. Bonus continually berated the entire referee crew to the point where the referees had to stop the game and tell her to calm down.

The arguing became such a hindrance to the game that the referees gave Le Moyne a yellow card with just over seven minutes left in the game.

Cohen steered clear of arguing any calls or showing Bonus any attention. Cohen was more worried about the way the game was going.

“Officiating in any game is something that we can’t control,” said Cohen. “We just try to look at the things we can control, which is our performance. We tried not to get too involved with the officials.”

Once that yellow card was given to Le Moyne’s head coach, Southern began to control the ball and put a lot of pressure on the Dolphins. DeBiase thought the energy of the team increased as the team started to run out of time.

“With five minutes left everyone was giving everything they had,” said DeBiase. “I think we just dominated the last five minutes and knew what to do when we came into their half.”

This was a big victory for Southern. The Owls sat at 5-5-2 after beating American International College last week and needed this game to get back over .500.

Cohen was pleased that his team was able to get a victory, but thought they could improve in certain aspects moving forward.

“I don’t know how they did it at the end,” said Cohen. “I give them a lot of credit but the truth is they’ve done it before. What I’d like to see moving forward is to be able to have more quality throughout the duration of the game. With that being said, the girls did an awesome job. They showed a lot of character and toughness.”

With the win over Le Moyne, and the draw to Merrimack on Saturday, the Owls now sit at a 6-5-3 record overall. Next up, the Owls travel to face Saint Rose on Oct. 22.

Photo Courtesy: SCSU Athletic Communications

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