Sunday could only be described as intense for the Saint Louis University women’s soccer team.
The heat and humidity were stifling during the second day of the Toys for Tots Military Academies Women’s Soccer Classic. The intense sun and heat caused a player from Air Force to be taken off the field by paramedics when she lost consciousness after the first game of the day, between Army and Air Force.
During the second game, the Bills were stifled by Navy’s intense, unrelenting defense.
After a late start Sunday afternoon at Robert R. Hermann Stadium, the Billikens closed out the tournament by falling to Navy 1-0.
According to the statistics, the Billikens dominated the match offensively, outshooting Navy 17-4. However, Navy scored the only goal of the match in the 27th minute, when Stacey Finley headed a cross from Ariana Downs into the right corner of the net from nearly six yards out.
The Billikens saw several scoring opportunities in the first half with shots on goal from Jamie Perry and Christie Cigno.
Cigno blasted a shot toward the Midshipen’s goal from eight yards in front of the goal, but Kim Bonafede made a diving save to stop Cigno’s shot.
The Bills saw fewer scoring opportunities in the second half against Navy’s tightened defense. The Mids forced the Billikens to be more physical in the matchup and allowed little room for the Bills to tie the game.
“When you play the academies, it’s going to be very physical,” said coach Tim Champion. “Although we played better today against Navy than we did against Army.”
In the final few minutes of the game, the Bills tried to rally and saw their final chance at scoring, just seconds before time ran out.
Perry took her final shot of the game with 1:30 remaining, blasting the ball in from 10 yards straight towards Bonafede, who punched the ball over the net to give the Bills a corner kick.
Anny Lucier scrambled to get the ball back into play with 22 ticks left on the clock, but the Bills were unable to bury the ball in the final moments of the game.
“We need to concentrate on finishing our chances,” Lucier said. “The defense is doing a good job at holding off opponents and feeding us balls from the backfield. Up top, we need to do our part and finish.”
In Friday night’s game against Army, the Billikens overpowered the Cadets 2-1.
Cigno netted both goals for the Bills, the first of which came in the second minute of the game when Erin Schwetye fed Cigno a one-touch pass from six yards, which she easily put in the goal.
In the 17th minute of the game, Cigno was taken down inside Army’s penalty area just before she could shoot the ball and was awarded a penalty kick. Cigno rocketed the kick inside the left post to push the Bills up 2-0.
Army fought back in the 78th minute and managed to cut the Saint Louis lead in half when Billiken goalkeeper Meghann Burke could only get her hand on Jennifer Pascucci’s shot from the right side, and the ball bounced into the Billikens’ net off the crossbar.
“Army is a very good team,” Champion said. “I’m happy we have made progress, and we are moving better on offense.”
Navy won the annual tournament for the fourth straight year, while Burke, Cigno and Megan McNiff received All-Tournament honors.
This weekend, the Billikens face Davidson at the University of Wisconsin Tournament Friday evening. Sunday the Bills will see action against No. 8 Connecticut before coming home for Conference USA play with Memphis and UAB.
