SAINT LEO, Fla. – The Saint Leo women’s soccer team answered two second half goals by the visiting Barry Buccaneers to score the equalizer in the 80th minute as the Lions earned a 2-2 draw with the Bucs in Sunshine State Conference action at University Field on Saturday night.
Fans had barely had time to take their seats before the Lions had the game’s first goal on the scoreboard. Saint Leo (3-4-1, 0-1-1 SSC), behind the advance by Karin Hedlund, pushed the ball into the Barry box, forcing the Buccaneer defense to push toward the Lions’ sophomore. With everyone’s attention toward Hedlund, junior Pia Soesemann snuck in on the back side of the box, Hedlund linked to her and she managed to push the ball past an advancing Buccaneer ‘keeper, catching the upper-right corner for the 6th minute goal.
Knowing the Bucs were outscoring opponents at a 20-to-6 clip in the second half, the Lions tried to throw everything at the Barry (6-2-1, 2-1-1 SSC) in an attempt to add more to their score before the intermission. At one point Saint Leo would push the ball past Barry ‘keeper Mikela Barboza but the BU defense managed to keep it out of the net, and the Lions didn’t manage a shot. Another opportunity saw Soesmann go one-on-one with Barboza before unloading a shot with maximum effort that the Bucs’ goalie saved at point-blank range. Despite their efforts, the Lions could only manage a 1-0 advantage into the half.
An odd situation greeted the Lions out of the lockers as Barry readied for a corner-kick in the 53rd minute. Sending the ball into the mixer, the referee’s whistle stopped play as he indicated the Lions committed a foul in their own box and Barry would be afforded a penalty shot. The nation’s goal-scoring leader, Emma Karp would sneak a shot off of Saint Leo goalkeeper Audrey Bernier-Larose’s left hand and into the goal to knot the score.
An all-too-familiar scene for Head Coach Ged O'Connor began to play itself out in the half as the Lions missed golden opportunities to regain the lead, while Barry began to chip away at the Saint Leo defense, until a mistake from the Lions’ defensive unit put Barry ahead.
Barry scored their second goal in the 69th minute when a loose ball on the Saint Leo half of the field saw Bernier-Larose run about 40 yards out to control the ball. Running into defender Line Pederson, Bernier-Larose lost control of the ball and Barry’s Lainie Ferring only needed one touch before sailing it the full 40 yards into a wide open goal.
This time, the Lions would not let losing another advantage in the second half stop them from fighting to draw the game back even, and they would prove that fact with just 10 minutes left in regulation.
Junior Cassie Barbaresi sailed a corner-kick into the box and the ball would work its way past a number of Buccaneer attempts to clear it before the freshman Pederson tallied her first goal of the year when she headed it into the net.
With the score tied at two, both teams would have a shot to win the game in each of the golden-goal overtime periods, but the Lions and the Bucs would ultimately go the full 110 minutes without deciding a winner and the game would end in a tie.
The Lions would lob 11 shots toward Barboza, who would stop nine, while Bernier-Larose would see five Buccaneer shots and save three.
The intangibles saw the Lions out-shoot the Bucs 24-to-14, while Barry doubled Saint Leo in corners at 10-to-5. Saint Leo was whistled for more fouls than the visitors from Miami Shores at a 17-to-13 clip.
The tie marks the first time in history of this 12-game series that these two teams could not claim a victor.
Saint Leo will now turn their attention to Florida Tech as the two teams face each other in Sunshine State Conference action on Friday afternoon. The Lions will kick off with the team that ended their 2009 season at 4:00 p.m. in Melbourne, Fla.
