Through tears, BG honors teammate

Freshman Leslie Dawley collapsed during Tuesday's game.
BOWLING GREEN (AP) -- Grief-stricken over the death of a teammate during a game, Bowling Green women's soccer players came back the next day to finish the match after the victim's parents encouraged them to play.
Freshman Leslie Dawley's teammates fought through tears Wednesday as they registered a 2-1 overtime victory over Buffalo in the Mid-American Conference tournament quarterfinal. The game had been postponed Tuesday after Dawley, 18, collapsed on the field and later died.
"She died playing the game that she loved the most," her mother Wendy Dawley said from her home in Westerville.
A bouquet of pink carnations sat between the benches on the soccer field Wednesday, and fans wore yellow ribbons. Dawley's teammates wore black armbands that bore her uniform number 18 and black jerseys instead of their traditional home whites.
"We had cried all day," said Erika Flanders, a senior on the Bowling Green team. "We played on our emotion for her."
Emotional game
Referees and players and coaches from both teams gathered at midfield before the game and held hands in a circle during a moment of silence. They exchanged hugs and wiped away tears.
Buffalo coach Jean-A. Tassy carried the bouquet of carnations onto the sideline. His players gave each Bowling Green player a yellow rose, which the Falcons left at midfield after the game.
"Things that were important are no longer important," Tassy said.
Dawley fell face down five minutes into the game Tuesday. Trainers rushed onto the field and tried to revive her. Teammates covered her with jackets before she was taken by ambulance to Wood County Hospital, where she died.
She suffered from asthma and had been tested in October after she complained about trouble breathing, her mother said. The tests didn't show anything wrong.
Her family didn't attend Wednesday's game.
The coroner's office has not released the cause of death.