(Photo Credit: GoBonnies.com)
By Chuckie Maggio @chuckiemaggio
St. Bonaventure women’s soccer coach Steve Brdarski said the team is unsure of the extent of the injury that sidelined starting goalkeeper Beth Moore for her third straight game in Friday night’s home opening loss to Canisius.
“We don’t know enough information about it. We’re still waiting to find out,” Brdarski said.
Freshman keeper Lauren Malcolm got a third consecutive start and performed well, saving four shots in a 2-1 defeat. The Moon Township, Pa. native has made 19 saves in the first three games.
Being forced to throw a first-year player into the fire due to injury is a difficult spot for a coach, but Brdarski said he stopped using the “freshman” label once game action started.
“Her freshman year ended August 18. She’s no longer a freshman to me,” he said. “You might see it sometimes in other sports where you call players labels, but we don’t treat her like a freshman. We expect her to make saves, we expect her to do things. And I think she’s come up pretty big, I don’t think she looks at all like a player that doesn’t know her role. She’s come in, handled the pressure of the situation awesome.
“The things you don’t see are how hard she practices. She has no problem training and working, and that’s the thing I love about the kid.”
An own goal in the 81st minute denied Canisius of a shutout, but with 11 shots and some dynamite scoring opportunities, you could argue that the Bonnies should have won the game with multiple goals.
“You walk away from a game like today and you don’t say, ‘We should’ve lost this game.’ We were in control, we should’ve won,” Brdarski said. “It was a game we had… we could’ve easily been up 3-0 at the end of the first half. In all fairness, the first 45 minutes was probably the best 45 minutes this team has played all year long.
“That’s what kills you, but being a young team and going through this process and dealing with injuries and adversity, we have those things. Those are our challenges right now. It’s not a personnel thing, I don’t think. It’s figuring out who we are.”
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