BOX SCORE
PITTSBURGH – The St. Bonaventure University men's soccer team lost a heartbreaker in OT to Duquesne on the road Saturday night by a score of 4-3. The Bonnies move to 7-6-1 overall, 1-2 in A-10, while the Dukes improve to 7-5 overall, 2-1 in A-10.
It was a wild one in Pittsburgh on the campus of Duquesne University on Saturday night. St. Bonaventure got on the board first in the 7th minute when senior Brad Vanino scored off a strike from 20 yards out. The Bonnies and Dukes would battle back and forth for most of the first half with the Brown and White carrying the one-goal advantage until just seven minutes remaining in the half. Duquesne knotted the score when Colin Philips recorded his second goal of the season off a header from a direct kick off the foot of teammate Thomas de Villardi. The shots were 8-5 in favor of Duquesne in the first half, with both goalkeepers making two saves.
The second half began with action right from the beginning, just 49 seconds in to be exact, when Duquesne's Filip Velasevic scored his first goal of the season. SBU would eventually answer back in the 71
st minute when
Brad Vanino scored off a direct kick. That was Vanino's 2nd goal of the match and 5th goal of the season. Just two minutes later, fellow senior
Emmett O'Connor placed a ball into the back of the Duquesne net for his team-leading 6
th goal on the year, putting the Bonnies up 3-2 with 17 minutes left to play.
It appeared as though the Bonnies were going to escape with the victory until the final minute of regulation play when Austin Lange blasted a shot from 30 yards out that ended up in the back of the net, forcing the game into overtime.
In the overtime session, Duquesne would end the game courtesy of Kadeem Pantophlet who scored for the Dukes just two and half minutes into OT, putting an end to what was a five goal second half between the two conference foes.
"I can't recall a more difficult loss", stated Bonnies head coach Mel Mahler following the game. "We played great tonight and deserved to win. We will bounce back from this".
Duquesne ended the game with a 19-10 advantage in shots. The physical matchup between the two teams also featured a total of 20 fouls and 9 cards issued in the match. SBU redshirt junior goalkeeper
Jeremy Figler recorded 7 saves in the set-back for the Bonnies.
St. Bonaventure returns home next weekend for their A-10 Conference home-opener to battle Saint Louis on Friday (Oct. 25) at 3:00 p.m. The Bonnies will then travel to Dayton on Sunday (Oct. 27) for an afternoon matchup against the Flyers. Friday's game at McGraw-Jennings Field will be the first home game for the Brown and White in almost a month.Â
