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Late Goals End Saint Leo's Season With Overtime Loss

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By BART O'CONNELL Tribune correspondent

Published: November 12, 2007

ST. LEO - Maybe it was fatigue. Maybe it was luck. For whatever reason, a familiar theme for Saint Leo soccer postseasons continued Sunday.
Take the lead early, lose it late.

The Lions' women played a brilliant first half, highlighted by a header from Jennifer O'Connor in the seventh minute to take an early lead. But when Montevallo tied the game with 94 seconds left and forced overtime, the excitement suddenly left University Field, and that dreadful feeling set in.

The crowd's worst fears were realized when a penalty kick from South Region Player of the Year Stacey Balaam rolled past keeper Lauren Hudson for a 2-1 win, which ended Saint Leo's season. None of the Lions' players or coaches seemed stunned by the outcome, considering how drastically different the second half was from the first. Montevallo outshot Saint Leo 12-2 in the last 45 minutes, and 5-2 in the overtimes.

There was, of course, plenty of disappointment, as Saint Leo made another early exit from the NCAA II Tournament, falling far short of expectations.

"We were creating chance after chance after chance. We just couldn't put it in the net that second time," Coach Ged O'Connor said. "In the first half, we completely outplayed them. In the second half, we let them come back into it."

"We didn't work as hard as Montevallo," Hudson said. "Everyone was tired. We just gave it up. It was ours to win."

Following Jennifer O'Connor's goal, Saint Leo had three good scoring chances all fail to convert before the first half ended. But it mustered little offensively in the second half due to a defense-first mentality.

The tying goal stemmed from a Saint Leo foul that gave Balaam a free kick from about 30 yards away. She directed the ball over the Lions' cluster of defenders, and Montevallo leading scorer Kami Kapaku's point-blank redirect hit the crossbar and Hudson's head before caroming in.

"When we sit back and play defense, we get scored on - all the time," Jennifer O'Connor said. "When we're up, we don't play our game."

The Lions' last great scoring chance came with seven seconds left in the first overtime. Sophomore Hannah Beard found herself one-on-one with Montevallo goalkeeper Corey Gros and took a right-footed shot that deflected off Gros and across the goal to Sara Macko. Her shot misfired high and over the net.

"I don't know how that didn't go in," Ged O'Connor said.

The loss was especially tough to take for Jennifer O'Connor and Ginger Davenport, Saint Leo's two senior starters who played their final match. Hudson, a junior and Mitchell High alum, wanted to win it for them.

"I have one more year left. Jen doesn't. I don't care about me this year. It was about Jen and Ginger," Hudson said. "For me, this year was a disappointment. We didn't accomplish any of the goals we wanted to. Yeah, we went to the second round. We got to host. But we didn't get anything else."

Bart O'Connell can be reached at

boconnell@pop.tampatrib.com.

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