Apollo-Ridge grad Emily Bonelli back to form for Pitt-Greensburg women’s soccer after missing 2 seasons with injuries
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In the second match of the season, Pitt-Greensburg’s Emily Bonelli scored what turned out to be the only goal in a 1-0 Bobcats victory.
The goal was significant for several reasons:
• It provided UPG with its first victory of the 2024 season.
• It gave the Bobcats a win over local rival Saint Vincent, alma mater of coach Chuck Wigle. “We’re always told we need to beat Saint Vincent,” Bonelli said.
• Bonelli, an Apollo-Ridge grad, scored the goal with her left foot.
The last point is, perhaps, the most striking. The goal came on Sept. 4, nearly three years after Bonelli’s most recent goal: Oct. 26, 2021. In between, she sat out two consecutive seasons because of separate but related issues to her left knee.
But this season, Bonelli is back at full throttle and helping the Bobcats vie for the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference title.
Through their Oct. 15 match with Mount Aloysius, the Bobcats were 3-1 in the conference and 7-3-4 overall. Bonelli had made eight starts and was second on the team with five goals. Two of those goals — against Saint Vincent and W&J — were game-winners.
She might score a goal that is more important in the grand scheme of UPG’s season, but there isn’t likely to be one more poignant than the one Sept. 4.
“I couldn’t be happier,” said Wigle, in his 12th year at the helm, in an email to TribLive. “Knowing how hard she worked for two years to get back to form despite the setbacks is really special. After multiple surgeries, most players hang up their boots, but she just worked harder.”
Added Bonelli: “And just to score that goal, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh!’ That was the moment when I was like, I am back. I can do this. I am here to win and play the best I can.”
Entering her freshman season at UPG, Bonelli was coming off a minor procedure to remove some debris from her left knee. She played that entire fall without incident, scoring 14 goals and earning third-team All-AMCC.
Four days into training for her sophomore season, she knew something wasn’t right. A doctor’s examination revealed the medial patellofemoral ligament — the one that holds the kneecap in place — was stretched to the point that it wasn’t holding the kneecap steady anymore.
Reconstructive surgery followed Sept. 15, 2022. She would have to spend seven weeks on crutches before starting any serious rehab, so her sophomore year was shot. She had entertained thoughts of coming back for spring workouts but didn’t want to return too quickly and risk her junior season as well.
She continued to do rehab and therapy to strengthen the knee for her junior season. Then, in June 2023 while on vacation at the beach, Bonelli said she was walking on the sand and could tell something was off. The next morning, she woke up and couldn’t walk.
Her family took her to see Dr. James Bradley, head orthopedic surgeon for the Pittsburgh Steelers. An X-ray showed the screw that was holding her MPFL in place was working its way out.
“It was very painful with a screw halfway out of my knee,” Bonelli said.
Another surgery followed, and Bonelli’s junior season was wiped out.
“It was a roller coaster of emotions,” she said. “I was thinking to myself, if I didn’t come in (to see Dr. Bradley) when I came in, then I possibly would have started preseason again and hurt my knee even more.
“I don’t want to say that I was happy when it happened, but I’m glad it happened the way it did.”
The recovery from the second surgery, she said, was quicker than the first. She was practicing with the team again — albeit only in some drills and noncontact situations — by the time AMCC playoffs rolled around last fall.
By this past spring, she was full go. She played in the spring game and was able to go through preseason workouts as she did three years earlier. By the third match of the season, she was in the starting lineup and has started every match since the Sept. 21 win over W&J.
“Emily is one of the best finishers on the team,” Wigle said. “She has a lethal shot with both her right and left foot. It just comes off her foot different. It has pace, curve, movement and accuracy.”
But while it is business as usual for Bonelli on the pitch, she stopped short of saying she is back to 100%.
“I feel like once you go through these multiple surgeries, you’re never going to get back to 100%,” she said. “I feel like I am at 100% … for where I need to be right now.”
Heading into the home stretch of the AMCC schedule, UPG is trying to position itself to contend for the conference title and a spot in the NCAA Tournament. The Bobcats made it to the championship match last season, losing to Penn State Behrend on penalty kicks after a scoreless draw in regulation and overtime.
Bonelli said the season has had some challenges, as several players have been dealing with injuries. Bonelli has a bit of experience in that department, so she is able to offer counsel to her ailing teammates.
“I know it’s super hard, but, trust me, it gets easier,” she said when asked about what she tells the players who are trying to get back from injuries. “You need to listen to your body. You need to do what’s right for you because if you’re trying to rush back from an injury, you’re going to hurt yourself worse.”
As for her own performance, Bonelli is pleased but, at the same time, recognizes she hasn’t been perfect. That being said, she is confident that she has shown improvement each time out.
If nothing else, she has the satisfaction of knowing she made it all the way back from injuries that might have deterred others.
“I feel like I’m doing pretty good with the cards I’ve been dealt,” she said.