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Sports in general, can be a game of inches, one call can change everything, and that was the case tonight as the Padua Bruins fell to the St. Vincent St. Mary Fighting Irish at home, 6-3. The game was much closer then the final score would indicate as the Bruins played incredible all night against one of the top teams in the state with SVSM. Simply put, one call changed everything.
Down 4-3, 4 minutes into the fourth quarter, it appeared that Padua had tied the game with an Ava Schmidt goal, and then it was all taken away when the officials huddled, and waived it off. For the young Bruins, these are the “learning” moments that can only make you better. The Bruins will learn from this heartbreaking moment and only get better, that is what future champions do! For tonight however, it was just too much to overcome.
Leading the way for the Fighting Irish tonight was Gwen King with 2 goals as Emma Zawaski, Ava Boberg, Lindsay Jermain and Abby McCarron each had a goal as well. For the Bruins, it was Anna Kwiatkowski with 2 and Ava Schmidt with 1 on the night.
Both teams came out playing incredible defense as there was no score until halfway through the first quarter when the Bruins Ava Schmidt found the back of the net to draw first blood for the home team. The Bruins made the lead stand up for the rest of the opening quarter, even adding on to it when Anna Kwiatkowski scored with 9 seconds to go. She worked her way around the top and then cut in at the exact moment to strike. The Bruins looked great, up 2-0 after one!
The Fighting Irish began their comeback trail when Ava Boberg connected on a free possession with 9:21 to go in the second quarter, to spark SVSM. About 5 minutes later, the Fighting Irish struck again to tie the game. This time it was Lindsay Jermain scoring off a reset to even it up with 4:59 to play in the opening half.
The Fighting Irish kept the momentum going, and took their first lead of the night when Emma Zawaski scored only moments later. SVSM then made their lead stick until the break, as they took a 3-2 lead into the half.
Both teams played strong defense out of the gate to start the second half, as the crowd got more and more into it and the intensity grew. Then it was Kwiatkowski scoring her second goal of the match with a powerful overhand heave, to tie things up with 7 minutes to play in the third quarter, as Bruin nation erupted. The game stayed tight and tied until a Gwen King goal pierced the net to put SVSM back on top, 4-3 with 49 seconds to go in the third.
The intensity a few moments into the fourth quarter was so thick, you could cut it with a knife as the Fighting Irish clung to a one goal lead and the Bruins poured it on to try and tie it up. It appeared for a brief moment that the Bruins did exactly that when Ava Schmidt scored with 8:41 remaining in the contest. The officials then huddled up, talked it over, took the goal off the board and handed the lemon back to the Fighting Irish. It was a punch to the gut for the Bruins as they had appeared to tie it before it was ripped away by an officials huddle.
The goal torn away was just too much to comeback from for the Bruins as SVSM proceeded to score two goals in the next two minutes to pull away. The first coming from Gwen King and the second off the stick of Abby McCarron. Just like that, Padua went from being tied to trailing 6-3 in the blink of an eye. Padua couldn’t recover as SVSM went on to win.
The Bruins are back in action this Wednesday night as they host Lake Catholic.
