The Buffalo State women’s soccer team has had nine head coaches in the history of the program. The ninth and current head coach, Nick DeMarsh, is the longest tenured and has been head coach since 2002. On Saturday at Coyer Field versus the Oswego State Lakers DeMarsh earned his 100^th career win in exciting fashion.

DeMarsh downplayed the significance of the milestone but assistant coach Brian Knapp, who is in his second season under DeMarsh, knows it means a lot more to DeMarsh than he will admit.

“He loves coaching for Buffalo State,” Knapp said. “It is such a big part of his life; he deserves this moment for sure. I hope he gets another hundred.”

Senior captain and defenseman Liz Malinowski and senior forward Megan Chapple were both very happy to see him reach this milestone

“He deserves it; he’s the best coach I’ve ever had.” Malinowski said. “No matter what, he always motivates me to be a better player and person and he always stands behind us and supports us no matter what.”

“As much as we’ve put him through this season, he’s never stopped believing in us,” Chapple said. “He always pushes us at practice, he makes us tougher everyday and he makes us better players. [DeMarsh is] probably the best coach I’ve ever had.”

It was Chapple’s late game heroics that sealed the win for the Bengals. After early pressure by the Lakers that saw a goal of theirs taken off the board because of a player being offside, the Bengals grabbed ahold of the lead in the 19^th minute when junior defenseman Gabrianna Boldinski headed home her first goal of the season off of a corner kick by freshman midfielder Breanna Knight.

The Bengals nearly took complete control of the game a few minutes later. Freshman midfielder Victoria Colotti made a beautiful pass across to junior forward Meghan Allen who was one-on-one with the goalie but ripped her shot just wide of the net.

The game was physical from the start as the Bengals finished with 19 fouls and the Lakers tallied 11. In the 69^th minute, the Lakers finally made the Bengals pay for their physicality as their 15^th foul resulted in a Lakers penalty kick. Freshman midfielder Sarah Grupp capitalized on the Bengals’ mistake and tied the game at one.

The Lakers had all the momentum after the goal and kept the pressure on the Bengals. It seemed the game was headed to overtime until the final minute when Allen raced down the right side and lofted a pass across the field to a streaking Chapple who was one-on-one with the goalie in the box. Chapple blasted a shot that was saved by junior goalkeeper Alyssa Glasshagel.

Although Glasshagel made the save, she couldn’t control the ball and the rebound bounced right back out to Chapple who ripped another shot and found the back of the on the second chance. The Bengals took a 2-1 lead with 38 seconds to go and the game ended with that score.

“My thought was — if this ball doesn’t go into the back of the net then we’re going into overtime and my legs aren’t going to last that long,” Chapple said. “We definitely needed a win.”

“It wasn’t the best soccer we’ve played,” Malinowski said. “But we’ve really showed we have a lot of heart and we’re willing to do whatever its takes. Even if things aren’t looking good, we can still work and find a way to win.”

The Lakers ended the game with the lead in shots by a margin of 10-7, but the Bengals led where it mattered most — on the scoreboard.

The win against Oswego was the Bengals second game in as many days as they took on the SUNY Cortland Red Dragons on Friday, also at Coyer Field.

The game against Cortland was a tale of two halves. In the first half, the Red Dragons controlled the pace and outshot the Bengals by an 8-2 margin and held the advantage in corner kicks by a 3-0 margin. Although the Bengals faced a lot of pressure, the game remained scoreless heading into halftime.

In the second half, the Bengals outshot the Red Dragons by a 10-3 margin, had the advantage in corner kicks by a 3-0 margin, controlled the pace and had many chances to score but couldn’t convert them.

The missed chances came back to haunt the Bengals in the 73^rd minute. The Red Dragons’ second shot of the half was a goal by junior forward Krista Conzo which gave them a 1-0 lead. Cortland never looked back. The Bengals continued their offensive push, but their inability to convert did not change. The game ended with a 1-0 score in favor of the Red Dragons.

Although it was a tough loss to handle because Cortland is one of the best teams in the conference and they had chances to beat them, DeMarsh was still extremely happy with the way his team played.

“I thought it was our best performance in weeks,” DeMarsh said. “We haven’t played that well since Brockport. We built up the ball, we kept the ball, we made a lot of chances in the second half and we adjusted. I was actually really pleased with the performance, just not the result.”

The weekend split put the Bengals back into contention for a playoff spot with four games left in the season. They have another big weekend ahead of them when they travel to the “North Country” to take on Potsdam and Plattsburgh Friday and Saturday.

email: [email protected]