Saint Louis University entered last weekend in desperate need of
a sweep of this week’s games to re-establish themselves in the
rankings, but they had no such luck. After downing DePaul 4-0 last
week, the Billiken offense suddenly sputtered, failing to put up
any goals against Charlotte in a 2-0 loss. SLU, however, salvaged
their week and split their games by topping Southwest Missouri
State 3-2.
The Bills were not plagued by a lack of chances, but instead an
inability to put the ball in the net, which seems to be a
developing pattern. SLU out-shot the 49ers by a two-to-one margin,
with 16 shots coming for the Bills, seven of them on goal.
The best SLU chances came in the first half, when they fired 11
of their shots at the goal. Junior Ryan Wileman emerged from a
cluster in front of the Charlotte goal to put a head on a corner
kick in the 16th minute, but the ball hit the post and deflected
harmlessly away.
Sophomore Will John also made a run in Beachem in the 44th
minute, but his shot was turned aside by the 49er keeper.
Charlotte junior Adam Ruud proved to be a challenge early in the
game when he carried the ball through the SLU defense in the
seventh minute, but was turned away by the Bills’ senior keeper
Martin Hutton.
Ruud made good on his second run at the net, coming in the 18th
minute. He beat freshman defender Brandon Gasparovic through the
right side of the SLU back line and put the ball past Hutton into
the left side of the net.
The second Charlotte goal came off of Ruud’s feet, this time in
the 63rd minute. Ruud launched a shot from 18 yards away into the
left corner of the net. The goal came on a run set up by Charlotte
sophomore Pete Palomino.
Charlotte was able to seal their victory despite giving up 11
corners while only taking three and fouling the Bills 18 times. The
49ers also managed to place only three of their shots on the
net.
The loss to Charlotte (4-3-1, 1-3-0 C-USA) hurts SLU’s chances
of repeating their conference championship. The Bills, currently in
fourth place in Conference USA, only trail first place Memphis and
UAB by two points. SLU plays host to UAB on Saturday and Memphis
will host the Bills on October 23.
“We’re 2-1-1 in conference; I think we can win the conference
with two losses,” Donigan said.
SLU opened the contest against No. 25 SMS with the same
inability to finish that has been plaguing the team throughout the
season. John had three early opportunities, but each was turned
aside by the Bears.
The most promising chance came on a corner kick from sophomore
John DiRaimondo that John received in the penalty area. John
brought the ball to his feet and fired a shot on net, beating
junior goalie Nathan Platz, but the Bears’ defense deflected the
shot harmlessly away from the back line.
SMS pressured the SLU defense throughout the first half and
broke through the back line to tally the first goal of the game in
the 19th minute. Freshman Danny May netted the goal on a run that
resulted from a quick counter of a SLU chance in the SMS defensive
third.
The Billiken attack persisted and earned an equalizer that sent
the teams to half-time locked in a 1-1 tie. John carried the ball
deep into the right corner and swung a cross into the top left side
of the SMS penalty area where Wileman trapped the ball and pushed
it past two defenders. Wileman slid the ball along the ground past
Platz to earn his fourth goal of the season.
John notched the second Billiken goal with a 25-yard shot that
floated over Platz’s head into the net just two and a half minutes
into the half. Sophomore Casey Speiss collected his second assist
on the goal.
“The shot was basically to surprise the goalie,” John said.
“Once I connected the way I did, I thought there was a good chance
that it would go in.”
paid off in the 66th minute. SMS tied the game on an own goal that
deflected off of the feet of Gasparovic and rolled past a diving
Hutton to the back of the net. Senior Doug Lascody was credited
with the goal.
It only took three minutes for the Bills to grab the lead back
from the Bears. Sophomore Danny Wynn connected with John along the
left side of the field in the 69th minute, and John carried the
ball to within six yards before blasting the ball past Platz to
give SLU the lead for good. John now has a team-leading nine
goals.
The sudden bursts of scoring and periodic droughts that SLU has
gone through are puzzling to Donigan, but not particularly
worrisome.
“Really, we get the same opportunities tonight as always; the
goals are just going in,” Donigan said. “We didn’t do anything
different in training this week than we have for the rest of the
season.”
The Bills were able to hang on and win without their senior
defensive anchor Brett Branan. Branan served a one-game suspension
imposed by Donigan during the game. The suspension came for a team
rules violation, according to Donigan.
“We’ll take the win, but I don’t think we played well,” Donigan
said. “I don’t think that SMS played as well as they’re capable of.
It was a good win in our region against a good SMS team.”
Despite the four losses that the Bills have collected, Donigan
believes that the team is sitting in a good position to collect an
NCAA tournament bid.
“Now I think we helped ourselves a little bit, and other teams
will fall because they play each other,” Donigan said. “When we
look at the future down the road, all that we need is that NCAA
bid. All records are thrown out once we get that bid.”
SLU will play host to UAB this weekend in a game crucial to each
team’s success in C-USA play. A SLU win would put the Bills on top
of UAB in the C-USA standings, but a loss would drop them to five
points back. The teams kick-off at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
