This week's stories:
By Rachel George
The St. Bonaventure men's soccer team (8-9, 3-7) ended its seven-game losing streak with two wins over the weekend. The Bonnies finished strong in their final home game this season, as they defeated Fordham 3-0 at McGraw-Jennings Field on Sunday. The team held a ceremony for the seniors before the game. Players were introduced and gave their parents flowers. St. Bonaventure came out strong as senior midfielder and co-captain Johnny Phoumanny, senior midfielder Bob Hammer and freshman defender Steve Roach all had very close shots. Phoumanny scored his ninth goal of the season in the 20th minute when Hammer made a crossing pass to the middle from the left side to Phoumanny. Moments later, he made an excellent cross that Junior midfielder Geron DuPorte wasn't able to deflect in. Frustrated with the goal, the Rams began to play a more physical game and Matt Satzinger was yellow carded in the 33rd minute. The Bonnies continued to pressure the ball as they had a very close shot on a corner kick by junior midfielder Ryan Hallenbeck. Freshman forward Dan Bowen sprinted down the field on a break away right before the half, but his shot bounced off the post. The rough play continued in the second half, as the Rams received another yellow card and a red card. "I knew going in that (Fordham was) a bit of a cheap teamÉ I knew they didn't have much to play for," head coach Bill Brady said. The Bonnies began to retaliate, and freshman defender Konrad Paszkowski was red carded when he stuck out his arm to stop an attacking Fordham player, striking him in the neck. The Rams appeared to be making a comeback as they scored shortly thereafter, but the goal was disallowed on an offside call that occurred before the goal. Freshman midfielder Andy Garcia scored for the second game in a row on a cross from Hammer in the 56th minute. The Bonnies kept trying to generate more offense as they had several close shots. Hammer put the nail in the coffin as he scored on a pass from sophomore defender Misael Pedraza in the 63rd minute. Landry recorded two saves in the victory. The Bonnies downed visiting La Salle, 3-1, in a winter wonderland on Friday. DuPorte gave the team an early lead as he capitalized on a pass from Hammer in the ninth minute. Soon a blizzard began, with about two inches falling within a half an hour, significantly reducing visibility. Junior goalie Tim Landry said, "At one point I couldn't even see the other goal." The players, refs, fans, and field were all covered in snow, but the game continued and the weather eventually cleared up. St. Bonaventure notched its second goal in the 33rd minute as a freshmen tandem put them ahead 2-0. Garcia connected on a pass from defender Ryan Ercoli and midfielder Ryan Mahoney. McGraw-Jennings Field became deserted very quickly at halftime, as both teams and all the fans left to find warmth. The linesmen and the referee remained on the field, attempting to clear and uncover the sidelines underneath the snow. The Explorers came out firing in the second half. Tim Landry made an excellent save on a cross pass, but La Salle's Tom Kennedy would get one past him nine minutes into the second half. Upset with several of the out-of-bounds calls, La Salle began to question the linesmen. To add to the frustration, Landry again made two great saves within a span of six minutes, keeping the score a 2-1. Mahoney blazed down the field on a breakaway, but was side tackled at the last minute preventing a sure goal. Junior defender Nick Blair put the icing on the victory cake when he headed in a corner kick from Phoumanny with ten minutes left in the game. Relishing in the team's success and the weather, Blair made a snow angel in the middle of the field. "The weather was very bizarre. The guys played very inspired," Brady said. Senior midfielder and co-captain Daryn Keddell was pleased with the last two home games of the season. "(The team) played their hearts out for me. It made me proud," Keddell said. Brady also acknowledged the importance of the wins for the seniors. "They ended on a good note. They won their last two games. They can really look at their senior year, I think we're 7-3 at home, and that's a good home record for (their) senior year," Brady said. The team is very happy to end the losing streak with excellent play over the weekend and for the seniors to finish their college careers with two wins at home. Following his two goals over the weekend, including the game winner against La Salle, freshman Andy Garcia was named the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week for the week of Oct. 28 thru Nov. 3. "(Winning Rookie of the Week is) very important to me. That was one of my goals this year," Garcia said. Coach Brady is proud of Garcia and thinks he will be a dominant player in the A-10. "Andy's a great player. It was just a matter of time. I think he's one of the players to watch in the coming years in the Atlantic 10," Brady said. Garcia and the rest of the Bonnies travel to Duquesne for a 7 p.m. game tomorrow.
Bonnies exceed expectations in winning season
By Jesse Fleming
Although the St. Bonaventure women's soccer team ended its season with losses over the weekend to Fordham and La Salle, senior goalkeeper Breanne Kraly views the season as a success. "I think that things went pretty well this season. People weren't expecting us to do very well at all and our number one goal was to prove them wrong," she said. The Bonnies traveled to Fordham to finish out their season on Sunday. The game stayed knotted at 0-0 until the 72nd minute when the Rams' Erin Safarik curved a corner kick into the net for the only goal of the game. Head coach Dan Magner said, "That's an unusual and rare shot." He realized during the game that it would be decided by a single shot. "As the game went on I knew one goal was going to be the difference. It wasn't going to be a 3-2, or 2-1 type of a game, And they got it," he said. The Bonnies dropped their game to the Explorers on Friday, 2-0. Kraly saved seven shots while picking up the loss. St. Bonaventure was outshot 12-6 in the contest. Magner expected La Salle to play a very good game. "La Salle was a tough team. They finished third last season and they have every player back. Also, they had arguably the top recruiting class in conference," he said. Amy Schneider recorded both of La Salle's goals. Magner thought she made the difference in the game. "Schneider was the Offensive Player of the Year in 2001. She was the difference in the game. I think that if she was on our team we would have won 3-0. She's a special player that finished her opportunities," he said. He thought the team played well enough to beat the Explorers. "I felt we created enough chances to win, but we did not put them away," Magner said. Kraly felt disappointed because the team didn't set the record for wins a season by a St. Bonaventure women's soccer team. "I thought those were two really big games for us, because if we won then we secured ourselves to finish in the top-half of the conference. We would have beaten the school record for most ever wins in a season in the history of the program," she said. The team finished with a 10-9 record overall, with a 4-7 mark in the Atlantic-10. The school record for wins in a season came in 1990 when the Bonnies recorded 12 wins. Kraly said the team began the weekend well. "Everyone was really psyched going into the weekend and I thought that we started to play really well, passing and playing together as a team. We had some let downs and we really weren't able to finish a goal all weekend," she said. She thought La Salle and Fordham deserved the wins. "I don't think that either team was better than us. They just worked harder than we did to get the win," she said. St. Bonaventure loses three seniors after this season. Senior captain defenseman Danielle Doemel, starting goalkeeper Kraly and walk-on senior forward Leslie Morey. Magner said that all the seniors will be missed. Doemel began her career at St. Bonaventure as a walk-on and ended up being a two-year captain. Magner said she is an inspirational player. "She's one of the best leaders that I've been around in ten years of coaching. I would take her on any team, any time, anywhere that I was coaching," he said. Kraly and Morey also contributed to the Bonnies. Magner said, "I respect Bre very much. She was patient for three years before getting the starting job this year. She kept us in quite a few games this year." "Leslie helped out very much last year when our numbers were low. She did tremendous work to get back into soccer condition and become a contributing member to our team," he said. Overall, Magner deemed this season a success. "Ten wins is certainly a good season. We would have liked to finish higher. If we won just one of our last four games we would have jumped ahead of Fordham and UMass. I'll be sure to hang that fact up in the locker room and show the girls all winter," he said.
By Jesse Fleming
"No matter what school you are, you can't be everything to everybody all
the time."
The St. Bonaventure men's and women's cross country teams finished in last place at the 2002 Atlantic 10 cross-country championships on Saturday at Schenley Park in Pittsburgh. The team's lowly performance continued a losing streak of almost a decade.
The statistics For the past seven years, the St. Bonaventure men's and women's cross country team has finished in last place at the A-10 championships. From 1998 to 2001, the women's team finished last in every meet it raced in: 20 in all. During the same time, the men's team recorded last place finishes in 14 of the 20 meets it competed in. In 2002, the men's and women's team lost to Gannon (Division II), Houghton (Division III), Delhi Junior College and Mohawk Community College. The Bonnies placed 24th out of 25 teams at the Notre Dame Invitational.
The question Why has the St. Bonaventure cross-country program struggled so much over the past decade?
The answers (It's all about the green) Many factors contribute to the program's ineptitude. Dollars stands at the top of the list, Lane said. "The real problem is scholarship money," he said. St. Bonaventure's total athletic operating budget 2000-2001, according to the Web site chronicle.com for 2000-2001 year was $4,486,625, the lowest in the A-10. The budget falls nearly one million dollars short of the next-lowest budget in the conference, La Salle at $5,415,244. St. Joseph's women's cross country team finished fourth at the championships this season. Hawks head coach Mike Quinn believes the Bonnies will continue to struggle against the higher-funded programs in the conference. "It's practically impossible for a coach to recruit an athlete without some type of financial help. You're basically recruiting kids out of the dorm." he said. "If St. Joe's and Bonaventure are after the same kid and I'm able to throw $10,000 of scholarship money to the kid that means the tuition will be $18,000 at St. Joe's compared to $28,000 at Bonaventure. As a dad that's going to make a big difference on where my child goes to school," he said UMass women's head coach Julie LaFreniere agrees that money is a big factor in fielding a strong program (UMass finished 8th out of 11th at the A-10's). "My program is suffering from very little athletic scholarship money. We survived in the past when there were hardly any track scholarships available to most programs," she said. Bonnies head coach Tom Hagen agrees that his teams are handcuffed because of a lack of monetary support. "The school has a certain amount of scholarship money, and we're not one of the top priorities because we're not a revenue producing sport. It's tough to give us a fully funded program," he said.
The gold standard: Notre Dame's women's program is ranked fifth in the nation by FinishLynx Women's Cross Country Rankings poll. Irish head coach Tim Connelly said his national-powerhouse team receives excellent funding. "We're fully funded in terms of scholarships, we're able to recruit the best in the nation. We have a commitment from our administration to be good in everything," he said. Chronicle.com lists Notre Dame's total athletics operating budget for 2000-2001 as $38,666,287. Notre Dame spends 34 million dollars more than St. Bonaventure on its athletic programs, while fielding a cross country program that is consistently in the top-10 in the nation. The numbers don't add up financially in SBU's favor.
The lack of a track program: The majority of the coaches interviewed for this article agreed that it is almost impossible to have a successful cross country program without a track and field program (The Bonnies do not have a track and field team). Rhode Island women's coach Laurie Felt Melnick said, "I believe it is very important to have a track and field program in drawing athletes to your school. All of my distance runners compete in all three seasons (indoor track, outdoor track, cross country). You cannot develop a distance runner if you only coach them for three months of the year." Melnick's Rams finished third at the A-10's. UMass's LaFreniere concurs. "The huge factor that will not attract distance runners to your college is lack of a track program. Distance runners cannot develop properly with just a cross country program and no track," he said. La Salle took home the A-10 championship this season, repeating last year's success. Explorers' head coach Charles Torpey realizes the importance of a track and field program. "If we didn't have a track and field program it would be harder to get athletes," he said. The Bonnies' Hagen understands that his program suffers without a track and field program. "The top kids are looking for an indoor and outdoor track program. We're not going to get those kids," he said. Lane said he thinks that the track and field issue is really not a problem. He believes that money is the cure of all ills. "If we had five scholarships (to give to cross country) it wouldn't matter if we had track and field," he said.
What the future holds: Lane and Hagen agree that the program is improving. This season, the team finished in the middle of the pack at the Fordham Invitational Sept. 14. "I think we're making significant strides with the men's team. We have good young runners. (Sophomore) Paul Nessle finished in the upper-half of the runners at the A-10 meet. I think the program is on the way up," Hagen said. Lane also sees progress with the program. "Coach Hagen has some financial aid to use. We just try to make progress every day," he said. Lane said he doesn't see the cross-country program being eliminated any time soon. "Cross country's a great sport. There's a lot to be said for an individual sport. The athletes are competing against themselves. A runner can run a personal best at any given meet. There's always going to be someone faster, but they can still achieve success and make themselves better," he said.
By Tracy Nelson
With the cusp of the St. Bonaventure basketball season upon us, I am counting down the days until I can take my place on the Reilly Center bleachers and revive my wintertime ritual. I have been sitting on these bleachers since I was seven years old. Growing up just down the road in Salamanca, my mom, an alumnae; my brother and I began making the familiar drive up Route 417 when Jim Baron took the helm in 1992. I haven't missed a home game since. St. Bonaventure basketball is in my blood. To me, there's nothing better than coming in from the blustery Western New York weather on a cold day in December to sit court-side watching local celebrities do what they do best. Although to kids who grew up with the Bonnies, like myself, perhaps "heroes" is a better description. I never wanted to spend my college years at St. Bonaventure; I thought it was too close to home. Then my future turned upside-down on March 16, 2000. It was a school day, but since I had waited far too long for this day to come, my mom suggested that I take the day off to prepare for the party. By 11 a.m. about 15 Bona faithfuls hovered around our living room TV decked out in their finest brown and white gear. Why all the fuss? The Bonnies were taking on Kentucky at noon in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The illustrious field of 64 finally included my team. I can't put into words how I felt at tip-off. That year, I thought the brown and white could beat the likes of Duke or Maryland on any given day. It was a game for the ages, a true classic. It was a David-and-Goliath fight, but the Bonnies took every opportunity to run with the Wildcats for 40 minutes. The Convocation Center in Cleveland rained threes. Patricio Prato shot the lights out, and I wondered how Tim Winn's signature acrobatic lay-ups found the iron. I thought for sure our luck would run out eventually. It never did. I sat shaking on the floor, clenching the hands of the only two fans in the room that felt what I felt: my mom and my brother. I thought about the Shandue McNeill jersey that I got for my 12th birthday. It still sits in my dresser drawer, never to be worn again. I had waited for months to get that jersey. My focus shifted back to the game. I could feel my heart sink when Kentucky's Tayshaun Prince spotted up for three on the right wing. Nothing but net. Tie game. Overtime. Images of rushing the court after J.R. Bremer's infamous game-winning three over Temple and being star-struck as a nine-year-old local kid while getting David Vanterpool and Harry Moore's autographs raced through my mind. With less than five seconds remaining in overtime, the Bonnies trailed 76-73. I couldn't watch. Then the impossible happened. Kentucky fouled David Capers behind the arc. Capers marched to the charity stripe for the biggest three shots of his career. First shot: good. Second shot: good. Third shot: good. I couldn't believe my eyes. The St. Bonaventure Bonnies from Olean, N.Y., were in a double-overtime battle with a perennial powerhouse like Kentucky. It was a dream. The Bonnies, who played their hearts out for 50 minutes, just ran out of gas in the final seconds. In the midst of a heartbreaking 85-80 loss, one thing became crystal clear. There is nothing like St. Bonaventure basketball. It is the beating heart of a rural, blue-collar community. I couldn't survive the winter months without it. Needless to say, on that day in March, I decided to come to St. Bonaventure. And you can bet I'll never regret it.
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