LEWISBURG, Pa. – In a scenario that's played out twice in the previous four games coming into its road matchup with Bucknell on Sunday, the Navy women's soccer team took a lead into the final six minutes of the game versus a Patriot League foe, but came away with only a hard fought point to show in its battle for a conference tournament berth as the hosts drew even in the 86th minute to grab a 1-1 result. The visiting Mids (9-5-3, 2-2-3 PL) took the 1-0 lead over the Bison (3-7-6, 1-2-4 PL) in the ninth minute on a
Helen Bonner (Fr., McLean, Va.) goal before conceding the late equalizer at Emmitt Field at Holmes Stadium.
"If you would've told us pregame that we would've earned a tie today, that would've been totally reasonable and acceptable, but with the way today's game was going, we needed to come away with a win," remarked head coach
Carin Gabarra. "Managing matches continues to haunt us late in games. We need to make better decisions and have better composure in one-goal games down the stretch.
"I'm proud of the effort, fight and grit that we showed today in getting a point on the road at a tough place to play. It was a good back-and-forth battle that we were able to generate a good number of high percentage scoring opportunities. I'm pleased that we're continuing to move up the standings, but three points would've been so much more gratifying."
Both teams were active on the attack early as Bucknell's Henna Andican tested Navy's goalkeeper
Natasha Stramrood (So., Cypress, Texas) in the seventh minute before the Mids flipped the field less than two minutes later and found its way onto the scoreboard. Following a corner kick into the center of the box,
Lucy Gaines (Jr., Seattle, Wash.) swung at the bounding ball and lofted a shot over the Bison's goalkeeper, but it didn't have enough pace to break the goal line as Bucknell defender headed the ball away back into the field of play. With another look at the goal, Bonner ran up towards the floating ball and didn't miss with a powerfully struck side volley into the net at 8:21.
Ahead 1-0, the Mids nearly doubled its lead in the 27th minute when
Mimi Abusham (Sr., Los Alamitos, Calif.) received a pass in the box and posted up her defender before spinning into space and taking a shot on goal that was deflected late and harmlessly bounced to Reese Dolan, Bucknell's goalkeeper.
Stramrood did her part to keep it a one-goal margin as she dove and made her second save of the first half on another Andican shot in the 33rd minute.
Coming out of the locker room up 1-0, the back-and-forth action continued as the teams combined for five total shots over the initial 15 minutes of the second half with three for Navy and two via Bucknell.
Jessica Black (Fr., Cedaredge, Colo.) tallied the Mids' shot on goal during this span, while Andican was back at it for the Bison with her third look at Stramrood of the game, an easily-handled long-range shot to the goalkeeper's chest.
Unwilling to sit on a tightly-contested 1-0 lead, Navy kept hunting for an insurance goal as
Mackenzie Morrow (So., Jacksonville, N.C.) and
Hannah Mulholland (Jr., Chandler, Ariz.) challenged Dolan with shots on goal in the 62nd and 67th minutes, respectively. Mulholland's look was especially threatening as she curled a shot off the right wing towards the far upper-90 and forced Dolan to out-leap Black, who crashed in through the box.
The Mids' next look for an additional score came in the 74th minute when Abusham found a wide-open
Lizzie Emerson (So., Houston, Texas) on the right wing. After a few dribbles to gather herself, Emerson triggered her shot, but Dolan had significantly cut down her space and aggressively slid into Emerson's attempt.
Withstanding all of Navy's threats, Bucknell had one final glimmer of hope in the 86th minute when a series of passes found Andican in space in the attacking third. Taking her sixth shot of the day, Andican didn't miss and slotted a shot into the far corner of the net to even the score at 85:54.
With the seconds ticking down, Bonner had eyes on her second goal of the game, this one of the game-winning variety. In the 89th minute she ripped the Mids' final shot on goal with a low-line drive and forced Dolan to dive late and bat the ball away from the goal line to seal the 1-1 draw.
For the game, Navy out-shot Bucknell, 15-10 with a 9-5 advantage in shots on goal. The host Bison had an 8-6 edge in corner kicks.
Stramrood finished with four saves in goal for the Mids, while Dolan was credited with eight stops.
Navy will round out the home portion of its regular season schedule this coming Friday with a showdown versus Lafayette. Following a pre-game Senior Day ceremony to celebrate the Mids' seven-person senior class, kickoff is slated for 5 p.m. at the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility.
