By Charlie Maisano
The Fordham women’s soccer team had an extremely long week, to say the least. The Rams looked to bounce back from their 1-0 loss to Duquesne last Sunday against the St. Bonaventure Bonnies on Thursday. The Bonnies entered the fray 0-11-2 and 0-3-1 in A-10 play, while Fordham had a record of 5-5-3 and 2-2-0 in the Atlantic 10. Both teams also came into the game on a two-game losing streak, so a win would have helped get the Rams and Bonnies back on track.
With a W in mind, the Rams made sure to come out aggressively against a struggling St. Bonaventure team. The women gave themselves plenty of opportunities to score in the first half, taking eight shots along with one corner kick.
The best chance they had to score came in the 29th minute when sophomore midfielder Morgan Busacca took two shots in front of the net. Bonnies goalkeeper Lauren Malcolm was down in front of Busacca but managed to block her first shot, and off the rebound, a Bonnies defender was able to block that shot as well and kick it out of the box.
In the second half, the Rams continued to ramp up the pressure on Malcolm and company. The team took 14 more shots and attempted two more corner kicks.
However, when the regulation horn sounded, the scoreboard still read 0-0 and the Rams and Bonnies went to overtime. From overtime, they went to double overtime and not even that was enough for either team to score. The game ended in a scoreless tie thanks to Malcolm and her 13 saves.
The Rams went 0-1-1 in their brief two-game home stand. Head coach Jessica Clinton thought Malcolm played a great game for the Bonnies, but overall her team did not execute in crunch time.
“We’ve changed the way we approach the game and our formation,” said Clinton. “We were able to go into the St. Bonaventure game with a strong attacking plan and our players did a very good job in executing it. We had some good looks on goal, but they weren’t the killer shots. Lauren Malcolm is a good goalkeeper, and she kept St. Bonaventure in the game, but in the final moments, we just weren’t as clean as we had hoped.”
Clinton was also impressed with her team’s defense, sometimes referred to as the Department of Defense, which limited St. Bonaventure to just six shots compared to the Rams’ 25.
“In switching some formational tactics around, we were in impressed with our team defensively. Our group defending has been strong, but we played with more intention and organization on Thursday,” said Clinton.
After their tough double-OT draw, the Rams traveled to Virginia on Sunday to play the Richmond Spiders. For the second game in a row, the women had to go to double overtime to determine the outcome of the game, only this time it did not end in a tie.
In the 105th minute of the game, sophomore goalkeeper Kelly LaMorte had a goal kick stolen by Spiders senior forward Lexi Prillaman. Prillaman then beat LaMorte one-on-one to net the game winner and her second goal of the season. After outshooting their opponent for the second game in a row, the Rams could not get the ball in the back of the net and are now 2-3-1 in the A-10 following the 1-0 loss.
With only four games left in the regular season, the Rams will play the best and worst teams in the A-10 this week. The team returns home for a matchup against the A-10-worst Davidson on Thursday, Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. and then goes back on the road on Sunday, Oct. 15 to face A-10-leading La Salle at 1 p.m.
