Sept. 10, 2006

AMHERST, Mass. - The St. Bonaventure men's soccer team is still searching for its first win of the season following a hard-fought, 1-0 overtime loss to Massachusetts in the UMass/Holy Cross Invitational on Sunday afternoon at Rudd Field.

The Bonnies and the Minutemen played 96 scoreless minutes before UMass forward Mike Desantis beat Bona goalkeeper Massimo Collu-Marchese with a shot midway through the first overtime period. It is the Bonnies second loss in extra time this season - the first coming in a 3-2 defeat against Akron in double-overtime on Sept. 1.

Collu-Marchese recorded one save for the Bonnies (on a UMass penalty kick), while Minutemen goalkeeper Zack Simmons made four stops.

St. Bonaventure has out-shot its opponent in each of the past three contests, including an 8-6 margin over UMass in Sunday's game. Juniors Phil Amahazion and Nikola Vasilev led the Bonnies with two shots each.

Amahazion and junior teammate Nick Lopez were named to the UMass/Holy Cross Invitational All-Tournament team.

"Right now the team is down and we're searching for answers to heal the pain," said Bona head coach Mel Mahler. "This is a resilient group and I have faith in their ability to bounce back."

"I've said it before and I still believe that we'll be okay," Mahler added. "This team has some great soccer ahead of it and we're going to do some good things very soon."

The loss drops St. Bonaventure to 0-5-0 on the season, while the Minutemen remain undefeated at 5-0-1.

St. Bonaventure concludes it six-game road stretch on Friday, Sept. 15 against Buffalo. Game time is set for 7 p.m.