Stony Brook Women’s Soccer are off to their best start since 2007, following two home victories over the weekend. The Seawolves earned a pair of 2-1 victories, starting with a thrilling overtime victory over Northeastern on Friday, Aug. 23, and Manhattan College on Sunday, Aug. 25.
In Stony Brook Athletics’ first slate of games since winning the America East’s Commissioner’s Cup, and head coach Tobias Bischof’s first couple games at the helm, the Seawolves went down early Friday night. Northeastern junior forward Chelsea Domond put the Huskies on the board first, 5:22 into the game. Stony Brook junior midfielder Chelsie DePonte, the biggest winner of opening night, evened the score at 1-1 12:27 into the game off an assist from fellow junior forward Fanny Götesson.
Bolstered by an eight-save performance from reigning America East Goalie of the Year winner, Sofia Manner, the Seawolves battled it out with the Huskies until the bitter end of regulation. In overtime DePonte stepped up, scoring her second goal of the night — the first multi-goal game of her career.
“First, I was thinking ‘Follow the play, follow the play, you never know what could happen,’” DePonte said in a post-game interview with The Statesman. “Luckily it popped out and I was like, ‘Breathe, stay calm, try to get over the ball so it doesn’t shank.’ Good technique helped me get it in.”
Bischof enjoyed the debut victory and made sure to give the players credit. “It’s not really about me,” Bishof said. “It’s about the team. It’s about Stony Brook University and the athletic program. So I’m not that worried about myself, but the girls worked hard during preseason and we still have work to do but it showed today that we can go the extra mile and grind. So extra respect to my players for this one.”
Stony Brook had a quick turnaround after their victory over Northeastern, welcoming the Lady Jaspers of Manhattan College to town on Sunday.
The Seawolves managed to strike first this time at 35:04 when sophomore midfielder Ranae Ward scored her first goal of the season. The Jaspers quickly tied the score only three minutes later off a score by junior forward Arianna Montefusco. The draw continued until 64:46, when Stony Brook junior forward Fanny Götesson put the Seawolves up 2-1, a lead they would never relinquish.
“I’m very happy with the girls,” Bischof said in a post-game press release. “They have given great effort to become better in practices and in games but we still have a lot of work to do with our team. We know we still have to improve in a lot of aspects in our game. Today, we did a great job of putting the ball into positions where we can score and we did with Ranae and Fanny’s goals. They were very well-taken goals.”
The Seawolves will hope to take their successful homestand play on the road with them, traveling to play the University of Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens in Newark, Delaware on Friday, Aug. 30.
