By: Maliek Watkins
As the season progresses for the Saint Leo Women’s soccer team, we see them take on their latest challenge on September 25th, 2019 again Flagler University. With the game showing true intensity from start to finish and though Saint Leo was putting out maximum effort, the school suffered a devastating loss to Flagler with the score ending 2-0.
The match was played at Saint Leo soccer stadium on the main campus on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. with an attendance of almost one hundred guests. With Julia Ortiz as the starting goal keeper for Saint Leo and Sarah-Lisa Dubel for Flagler, the first half of the game began. The match started with a Foul on Saint Leo within the first 5 minutes of the game. The first shot of the game was also taken by Briana Yamamoto of Saint Leo which was a wide ball that lead to a corner a kick by Flagler’s Charlene Nowotny. Just a few minutes later, the first offside of the game was commited by Flagler.
As the game progressed with shots and corner kicks taken by both teams, it was at the 18:30 mark that the first goal of the game was scored by Flagler’s Brin Wexler. She was assisted by Lorena Lopez breaking the tie at 1-0 in Flagler’s favor. This goal clearly left the Saint Leo supporter’s disheartened as the disappointment was evident on their faces when the Flagler’s goal was made.
Not too long after at the 23rd minute, the first substitutions of the game were made by Saint Leo as they brought in Kelli Hippenmeyer for Sydney Chase, Lindsey Benedetto for Adriana Tirado and a third substitution made at the 26th minute as Nina Mueller came in Brianna Yamamoto. Flagler made their first substitution at the 26th minute with Chloe Byrne coming for Lorena Lopez.
The match continued at a steady paced with several fouls made by both teams, which to lead to Saint Leo receiving its first Yellow card at 31-minute mark in by the hands of C. Solis-Deleon. The next shot of the game was finally attempted at the 35th minute by Maria Mujica of Flagler which resulted in the ball just hitting the cross bar. With more shots attempted, fouls incurred, Substitutions made, and corner kicks taken, the first period of the game ended with Flagler leading the game at 1-0.
Which much suspense in the air, the second half started with #6 Emily Baker, #10 Adriana Tirado, #8 Sydney Chase, #26 Raylyn Straubmuller, #32 Caitlin Strong for Saint Leo University and #1 Sarah-Lisa Dubel, #2 Ali Ritter, #3 Hannah Dolores, #7 Charlene Nowotny, #8 Chloe Byrne for Flagler.
The first shot of the second half was attempted by Flagler’s own Maria Mujican within two minutes. However, Maria’s attempt was foiled by a beautiful save by Saint Leo’s very own Julia Ortiz. This save ignited hope within the Saint Leo supporters as the crowd cheered for Julia’s save, leaving people believing that Saint Leo has a strong chance of coming back from their one goal deficit against Flagler.
Within the next six minutes Julia’s save, six shot attempts were shared evenly between the two schools as they both scrambled to make a goal. Flagler was trying to increase their lead and Saint Leo was attempting to bring the game to a tie to ease the anxiety in the atmosphere. After the shot attempts, both teams shared 4 fouls evenly between them by the 56th minute.
As players began to tire, a series of substitutions were made on both sides. Saint Leo was still looking for a way to get a good footing in the game as their still struggled with deficit.
With Saint Leo’s hope looking dimmer and dimmer, the crushing blow came at the 75th minute when Flagler succeeded their second and final goal of the game, making the score 2-0. The goal was scored by Sara Sandberg with a beautiful assist by Charlene Nowotny. This goal seemed to have sealed the deal for Flagler as Saint Leo was only able to attempt 2 shots after. This led to the game ending 2-0 in Flagler’s favor leaving Saint Leo rather disappointed as some members of the team walked with sheer disappointment in their face as they experienced this battle lost.
This game was the first win Flagler has had over Saint Leo since their first meet up in 2006 as Saint Leo has defeated them four times in a row with one tie game in 2015. This game left Saint Leo at 3-3-1 standing in the competition and Flagler with a 5-0 record.
Though Saint Leo lost this battle, the effort was evident and it is believed the school will bounce back from the loss as the fight is still on for the championship.
