The Dolphins hopes of winning a sixth consecutive CUNYAC Championship were dashed today, as the College of Staten Island fell to visiting Medgar Evers, 3-1, in the CUNYAC regular season finale which advanced the Cougars into the CUNYAC Final on November 7. Medgar Evers improved to 2-1-1 in CUNYAC play this season (7-8-2 overall), and will meet City College of New York (2-1-1) in the championship. CSI fell to 0-2-2 in conference play, and needed to win outright today to gain the final. The outcome was not meant to be on Senior Day.
After playing to a 1-1 draw earlier in the season, the teams knew it would be a heavily contested matchup, and that’s exactly the type of game that ensued. The game, however, was also marred by a questionable call that occurred just over 13 minutes into play.
With play exchanging on both sides of the field, Medgar Evers was on the counterattack, when a Wendy Gallegos pass found an open Kerissa Harris right down the middle of the field. Harris appeared to be in an offside position when receiving the pass and the linesman raised his flag to signal the offside. However, the head official continued to let play ensue, negating the call by the linesman, and Harris ran in untouched and buried her shot passed a bewildered Jessica Levy, who stood relatively motionless in goal.
The goal left CSI gasping for answers and staring down the barrel of a 1-0 deficit in the must-win contest.
From there, play shifted, and Medgar Evers seemed relegated to the counterattack while CSI powered for n equalizer. The Dolphins had their chances. A Lauren Neglia free kick from just outside the box beat MEC keeper Jasmine Rodriguez, but bounced off of the crossbar. Minutes later, CSI hit not one, but two goalposts on separate shots in a five minute span. Closing out the half, two-point-blank Neglia shots were saved by Rodriguez, and then a breakaway attempt by Tina Chechel was also turned aside by Rodriguez.
CSI had outshot MEC, 15-7, in the first half (9-5 on goal), but yet were down on the scoreboard and the Dolphins seemed aghast.
Still, the team kept fighting in the second half. While the Cougars hunkered down defensively, CSI’s chances became few and far between and yet CSI still had chances. A point-blank opportunity by Chechel in front of the goal mouth ended in a harmless shot to Rodriguez’s midsection, and later, a Christina Sgarlato header one-hopped resulting in another Rodriguez save.
In the final 10 minutes CSI hit desperation mode and moved a majority of defenders to the front line, including senior Kelly Kenny. Kenny wasted little time. She barreled down the far sideline, was tripped up, but got on her feet in time to put a ball into the box. After an initial shot on goal, fellow senior Ednita Lorenzo took the carom off of Rodriguez and buried the shot into the net, giving CSI the 1-1 tie.
The Dolphins only got to enjoy the tie for five minutes, however, as Shakera Ho-Sang displayed a sensational effort at the 80:53. The sophomore was in the middle of three CSI defenders but sprung out and then exhibited lightning speed to get away from CSI’s Jennifer Griffin and placing a ball in the low left hand corner of the net that Levy was able to tap with her foot but not enough to keep it from going in. The goal gave Medgar complete control.
From there, possession and momentum belonged to Medgar Evers, and late in the game, Ho-Sang was tripped up in the box and the official awarded a penalty shot to the Cougars with only :03 remaining. Kerissa Harris took the shot and got it past a diving Levy to make it a 3-1 final.
The Dolphins were notably upset after the game, but both teams had played an exhilarating game worthy of championship status. All tolled, CSI outshot Medgar 22-17 (12-6 on goal) and had an edge in corner kicks, 6-3. Medgar keeper Jasmine Rodriguez finished with an incredible 11 saves, while CSI’s Neglia was all over the pitch, tallying a total of 10 shots with 6 on goal.
Prior to the game, CSI honored their four seniors Tina Chechel, Ednita Lorenzo, Kelly Kenny and Jennifer Griffin.
Although their postseason bid is over, CSI still has one final regular season game remaining. The Dolphins will host Rutgers-Newark on Monday at 4pm at the CSI Soccer Complex.