ST. PAUL’S: BOUNCING BACK

St. Paul’s earns its second straight win after an 0-3 start; Crusaders shutout Pallotti, 28-0.

Defense, turnover ratio, and big plays were the name of the game for St. Paulâ??s at Mitch Tullai Field, as the Crusaders registered their first shut out and improved to 2-3 overall, and 2-1 against the MIAA B Conference, after an 0-3 start.

The Crusaders got off to a quick start when Sherrod Davis recovered a fumble on a kickoff that was caused by a big hit from the coverage team.

Rich Clough caused a fumble by ripping the ball out from his defensive end position, and Fradkin scoped up a ball and scored.

Sophomore Tre Davis picked off a Josh Eastman pass to halt a drive by the visiting Panthers, who earned only four first downs in the game.

While the Crusaders had no turnovers, they created a number of them by the visitors.

Fradkin and Roane had three receptions each for  54 and 50 yards, respectively.

Chris Wilson averaged five yards per carry; Brian Prater averaged 35 yards per punt and the linebacking corps of Cody Wilt and Mike Shipley, as well as the defensive front of  Ryan Gilway and Dimetrius Hajimihalis limited the visiting Panthers to 55 rushing yards.

The Crusaders go after their third conference win on Friday against visiting Severn, while the Panthers play host next week to homecoming foe Cardinal Gibbons.
           
St. Paul’s 28, St. Vincent Pallotti 0
SVP – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
SP – 0 – 14 – 14 – 0 – 28

2nd
SP – Taaffe 11 run (Feely kick)
SP- Roane 14 pass from Taaffe 1(Feeley kick)

3rd
SP-Fradkin 14 fumble return (Feeley kick)
SPâ??Roane 12 pass from Taaffe (Feeley kick)

AS GOOD AS ADVERTISED

In a rivalry game that was everything it was supposed to be, the visiting Chapelgate Yellowjackets stung Gleneleg Country School, early, and often, but not enough to prevent the Dragons from burning their wings off, 4-3.

by Lem Satterfield and Laura Bradley Glenelg Country School senior forward, Conner McAuliffe, called yesterday’s non-conference MIAA game against visiting Chapelgate Christian “very important against our rivals.” “Our team has been looking forward to playing Glenelg all season,” said McAulliffe’s counterpart, Chapelgate senior Jim Becker, who, along with his sophomore sibling, Michael, attends a school that is 10 minutes from that of Conner’s and his twin, Kelson’s. “We knew this would be one of the big games of the year, especially the way Glenelg had been playing,” said Jim Becker, whose Yellowjackets are two-time defending C Conference titlists. “We defeated Boys’ Latin a few weeks ago and a few Howard County [public schools] so we knew we had what it takes to beat a B Conference team.” It was indeed apparent that the Yellowjackets had it what it takes, following a game which featured three lead changes and as many ties. The visitors just didn’t have enough to pull off the victory.

Although visiting Chapelgate’s sophomore Sam Orlando (No. 15) tied the game for the first of three times at 1-1, against Glenelg Country School, his Yellowjackets wound up being burned by the Dragons, 4-3. The Dragons rose to 6-1; the Yellowjackets slipped to 8-1.

Kelson
McAuliffe’s game-winning fourth goal came with four minutes to play,
lifting the Dragons (6-1) of the MIAA’s B Conference to a
come-from-behind, 4-3, victory over the five-time C Conference
championYellowjackets (8-1) in a game played on a sunny afternoon.

The Yellowjackets had out-scored this season’s previous rivals by a combined, 37-6, with four shutouts; had won 19 of their previous 20 games; and had been victorious in 11 straight contests dating back to a 1-0 loss to Beth Tfiloh on Oct. 26 of 2006.

In victory, the Dragons avoided their second consecutive loss after having won five straight.

The Dragons were coming off of Friday’s 1-0 loss suffered against B Conference rival St. Vincent Pallotti. Prior to that, however, the Dragons (6-1) had out-scored their opposition by a combined, 21-4, with two shutouts.

Sophomore Andrew Trahan set the tone for the Dragons less than 10 minutes in, banging a hard shot from about eight yards out off the post to the left of keeper Steve Handy (eight saves).

“When we first started the game, emotions were high,” said Kelson McAuliffe. “Since the recent loss
to Pallotti, which should have been a smooth victory for us, we were all a bit stressed and wanting to
score.”

The Dragons’ early pressure produced a tripping penalty in the box, after which Kelson McAuliffe buried his penalty kick for a 1-0 lead with 30:58 on the clock.

“When the PK happened, I put it away with considerable ease. That seemed like a weight off our shoulders. There was a thought of, ‘hey, we can do this and we can score if we keep at it,'” said Kelson McAuliffe. “Having the PK was a real motivator for the team. We all relaxed and started playing and it showed on the field.”

It certainly did, as the Dragons dominated the next few minutes of play, nearly scoring on three different occasions.

Conner McAuliffe fired one over the crossbar, and sophomore Jimmy Tangires bounced one off of a post off of a long, somersault throw-in from the left of Handy by Nick Zients.

Kelson then sent a cross from the right of Handy to Conner, on the keeper’s left. But Conner’s 8-yarder sailed high over the goal.

“In the first half, we knew that Chapelgate had heard about my brother Conner and I on offense. They were going to guard us non-stop,” said Kelson McAuliffe. “So we attempted to start the game off with two other forwards, while my brother and I played midfield. This threw them off guard, and we had many good attempts on goal.”

But the Yellowjackets, who, early-on, had an apparent goal negated by an offsides call, not only survived the initial scare, but also answered with a beautiful counter-attack.

Angular sophomore Sam Orlando ran onto a ball near an area that was 25 yards out, and, waisting little time, skimmed a low ball that hurtled toward senior keeper Collin Lyons (14 saves).

Lyons managed to get his fingers on the ball as he dove to his left. But the shot’ss momentum carried past him to make it, 1-1, with 16 minutes left in the first half.

“We were able to attack them hard and produce,” said Yellowjackets’ coach Jason Bennett. “We showed that we can play with anybody, which was a highlight for us.”

Kelson McAuliffe had a hard shot blocked by Handy, after which the momentum shifted, ever-so-briefly, to the Yellowjackets.

But that momentum-shift was enough to allow the Yellowjackets to recover.

Michael Becker made a run down the far sideline, beat a couple of marks to get behind the Dragons’ defense, and forced Lyons to commit toward his right-hand side of the field.

At that point, Michael Becker released a perfect pass to his brother, who pounded the ball in for a 2-1 lead with 12:45 left in the first half.

“My brother got the ball at about midfield. I knew he was fast, but he really got on his horse today and burned by the guy even with two guys on him,” said Jim Becker. “He still crossed the ball to me right where I could place the ball in. I was not sure he was going to get it off, but I knew I’d better be there. It amazes me how he seems to make the seemingly impossible crosses happen.”
 
The Yellowjackets pushed so far forward, their defenders were close to midfield.

Jim Becker missed left of the goal, and, shortly thereafter, Chris Carlson sent a ball over the crossbar. Orlando also missed from close in.

But with 5:22 left in the first half, Glenelg’s Trahan didn’t blow his second opportunity.

During a scramble in front of Handy, the keeper twice batted away shots. But the third time was the charm for Trahan, who slipped in the tying goal for a 2-2 halftime draw.

“We knew, at that point, that this game was the challenge that we felt it would be,” said Dragons’ coach Lionel Francis. “This was, by far, the best team we’ve played, as far as their ability to pass on the run and to create chances.”

But that’s also when Francis realized that change was in order if his Dragons were to avoid another loss.

So Francis switched the McAuliffe’s to their natural positions at forward, effectively “opening things up for other guys on the team,” Francis said.

“In the second half, we switched it immediately to my brother and I as forwards because they already knew what was going on and we needed to score again,” said Kelson McAuliffe, adding that the Dragons. “We made defensive substitutions because they have a very quick offensive counter-attack.”

The change yielded results less than 20 seconds into the second half, as sophomore Brian Gibbons converted Kelson McAuliffe’s pass for a 3-2 lead.

The Yellowjackets tied the game for the third and final time when Alex Kriete scored off a pass from junior Alex McCurry.

But Kelson McAulliffe had the last word.

“I think both teams played it well. It’s unfortunate that one of the goals was a PK. But I believe that we’re the only team that has scored three goals on them,” said Bennett, who has played senior Jarod Bowerett at the outside midfield position normally occupied by Matt Shaffer, who suffered a foot injury “a week and a half ago.”

“That’s not something that’s meant to take anything away from Glenelg. They’re a very good team,” Bennett said. “As I told our players, this shows that we can play with anybody, but we still have not reached our potential. We still have a ways to go and more work to do.”

LOYOLA RALLIES PAST ST. JOE

After a disappointing loss to Archbishop Curley on Tuesday, Mount St. Joseph headed up to Towson on Thursday to face a surging Loyola team, which was coming off a 1-1 tie with McDonogh. The trend for both teams continued, as the Gaels saw a second straight 1-0 lead slip away into a 2-1 MIAA A Conference defeat.

The game began with a sluggish offensive approach from both teams, but senior goalkeeper Adam Santiago controlled the first half very well for St. Joe, as he made three saves, including a sliding stop in the box to prevent Loyola senior Steele Stanwick’s lob.

On the other end, the quick Gael forwards were speeding through the Dons backfield, but could not finish.  Likewise, Loyola’s midfielders could not make connections with their forwards and both teams would head into halftime with no goals.

That all changed in the second half as the and agile Desean Ragland, a speedy sophomore forward, breezing past the Loyola backfield, caught a swift pass from midfielder Jay Huffman  and sent the shot into the upper corner of the goal, going over a diving Tim Peitsch, Loyola’s goalkeeper.  The score came just sixteen seconds into the second period.

Loyola would reply on a nicely placed corner kick from senior David Butler to junior forward David Phillips for a header past Santiago in the 66th minute, tying the game.  The Dons would follow that with three minutes left in the game,as Isaac Taylor assisted a score by sophomore Douglas Adjei, who has been “Captain Clutch” for the Dons.

Senior captain Vince Garafalo of Mount St. Joseph, a teammate of Taylor’s state championship 16-U SAC United Premier club team out of Howard County, had a chance to make a difference and send the game into overtime on a shot with less than one minute left in stoppage time, but Peitsch was there to make the stop to secure the victory for Loyola.

“It was a battle in the air for the ball, but my head connected and it sailed in,” said David Phillips when asked about his game-changing goal. Phillips has now scored four goals in the last three games, all off the bench for coach Lee Tschantret and the rising Dons.

Senior midfielder David Butler noted that the victory was well deserved and credits his defense for “stepping up and playing with a lot of heart” against St. Joe’s talented forward corps. The Gaels’ Santiago had a very solid presence all game in goal with four saves to equal Loyola’s Peitsch.

With the victory, Loyola is now 4-1-2, while St. Joe has lost four in a row to make them 3-5 on the year.

Gael head coach Mike St. Martin and the hopes to get his team back on the winning end while seeking revenge for an early season loss to Gilman, next Tuesday at Villa Julie College (the Gaels’ temporary home field).

The Dons will look to Saturday at Loyola College to see if they can defeat rival Calvert Hall.  The game is scheduled for 10:00 AM at Diane Geppi-Aikens Field.

This article is dedicated to Mount St. Joseph junior Jonathan Stephenson, a back on the Gaels’ Varsity soccer team who suffered a kidney contusion going up for a header last week against Calvert Hall. He was treated at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore City over the weekend of September 21st and is now slowly yet surely recovering at his Columbia, MD home. Please keep Jonathan and his family in your thoughts. Thank you, Peter Dalmasy.

TIME TO MOVE ON

“I let up a little bit, maybe, and focused a little bit more on offense,
because that’s my specialty,” said McDonogh’s Lane Clelland. “I need to give a little more on defense,
try to run more things down, follow the ball better. It’s time to focus on the next game…leave the rest of that stuff in the past.”

by Lane Clelland
as told to Digital Sports

I guess you could say my mother’s kind of protective of me. Makes me my favorite food — home made tacos — like, once a month.

I’m her baby.

My mother’s a pretty strong woman. She never gives up. No matter how hard things get, she keeps pushing and she keeps on grinding. That’s a characteristic that I’ve gotten from her, I guess.

She asks me after games if I’ve given 100 percent. If I say yes, then she’ll look me in the eye and say, “then that’s all that you can do.” If I say no, then, well, that’s another thing.

Against Malvern, I think I gave a good effort. I had like 10, 15 pancakes against their guys, which is pretty good. But I had a couple of plays on defense when I guess I was not so good.

I let up a little bit, maybe, and focused a little bit more on offense, because that’s my specialty. I need to give a little more on defense, try to run more things down, follow the ball better.

	When we were down near the endzone [against Malvern,] I was trying to give that extra effort every time, because when you’re that close, you can’t afford to let up. But in the beginning of the season, when I looked at the schedule, I knew these last two games were going to be tough. I never expected to demolish those two teams. They’re both good teams, ranked in the top 10 in Philly. They’re two hours away. Back-to-back games that are two hours away — it’s tough to go on the road like that, back-to-back, against two teams that are ranked in the top 10 in Philly.
“I think I gave a good effort [against Malvern Prep.] I had like 10, 15 pancakes..which is pretty good,” said two-way lineman Lane Clelland (above). “But I had a couple of plays on defense when I guess I was not so good.”

Losing, yeah, it’s tough, with the expectations we have for this team. But now, we have to start really getting ready for the true [MIAA A Conference] season.

It’s time to focus on the next game against Landon and to leave all of the rest of that stuff in the past.

DONS SPIKE CARDS

Loyola won three of four games to get by rival Calvert Hall in boys’ volleyball.

by Joe DiBlasi

Loyola-Blakefield remained unbeaten on the season with a big 3-1 victory over
arch-rival Calvert Hall in an MIAA volleball game played at Loyola on Wednesday — a contest that was originally scheduled to be played on the road.

Don’s Coach Tim Baier got great efforts from Tristan Deppe, Andy Smith, Ian
Buchanan, and Andrew Hargest.

Baier had special praise for Hargest,
saying “Andrew had an exceptional game in all phases..passing, serving,
and spiking. He was also very solid on  defense.”

On
his team’s effort, Baier said “we made some good, smart plays at
crucial times. Calvert Hall is a good team.”

Loyola
won Game No. 1 by 26-24, but the Cardinals bounced back in the second game, winning
25-21 to even the match at 1-1.

The Dons pulled away in Game No. 3, winning, 25-17, followed by a convincing, 25-15 romp in the fourth game.

Baier
had high praise for the Cardinals and Coach Matt Carbine, saying  ”
Calvert Hall always comes to play. They have good attackers, they hit
hard, they play great back row defense, and they dug out lots of shots.”

Loyola won despite not having 6’5″ junior Trevor Dauses, an
outside-hitter, who injured his ankle in practice this week.

 Baier
said Hargest, a junior, “stepped up big in his absence.”

Dauses’ return, perhaps by Friday, could help the Dons immeasurably, as they travel to play
the Gilman Greyhounds in a battle of undefeated teams.

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WITH FIVE RUNNERS IN THE TOP 10, AACS WINS FOUR

The race was won, in dominating fashion, by Friends Grishig Iventichol, who scorched the opposition with a time of 17:57.

Sam Sutherland of Glenelg Country finished second in 19:26, two seconds in front of the first Eagle runner Will Kang (19:28).  Also cracking the top 10 for AACS were Chris Chitterling (4th-19:37), Phil Trainor (7th-20:18), Paul Graves (8th-20:19) and Tyler Trainor (10th-20:21).

Friends, which came away with three team wins, also placed Will Brown (9th-20:19) in the top 10.  Rounding out the top group were Sam Eitze of Glenelg Country (5th-19:49) and Nathan Shapiro (6th-20:03).

Here are all of the team scores:

AACS 21, Friends 34
AACS 18, Beth Tfiloh 37
AACS 23, Glenelg Country 32
AACS 15, Indian Creek 46
Friends 15, Indian Creek 50
Friends 25, Glenelg Country 32
Friends 24, Beth Tfiloh 31
Glenelg Country 24, Beth Tfiloh 31
Glenelg Country 15, Indian Creek 47
Beth Tfiloh 15, Indian Creek 43

CURLEY FIGHTS BACK TO TOP MSJ

The victory improved Curley’s record to 11-1 and 5-1 in the A Conference.  The Friars also regained a share of first place with Calvert Hall, which lost at Gilman yesterday.  Calvert Hall defeated Curley, 2-1, last week.

Senior Chris Quamina staked the Gaels to 1-0 first half lead.  The Gaels (5-4-0 overall) slipped to 3-4-0 in the league.

Archbishop Curley 2, Mout St. Joseph 1
Goals: AC-Teketele 2; MSJ-Quamina.
Assists: AC-Kamara, Winters; MSJ-Ragland.
Saves: AC-Connolly 3; MSJ-Santiago 4.
Half: Mount St. Joseph, 1-0.

8-0

Chapelgate Christian rolls along, yet again, 4-1

Jim Becker had a goal and two assists; Michael Becker had a goal and one assist; and Ji-Min Jeong and Mike Lovaas added one goal each as two-time defending MIAA C Conference champion, Chapelgate, won a battle of unbeaten teams, 4-1, over visiting Mount Carmel at Baltimore Lutheran.

Mount Carmel’s lone goal was scored by Mark Concordia on a penalty kick, but with the game tied at half, 1-1, Chapelgate sprinted away for another win.

Chapelegate rose to 8-0 overall, and, 4-0 against the league.

Goals: C-J. Jeong, J. Becker, M. Lovaas, M. Becker. MC-M.
Concordia

Assists: C-J. Becker 2, M. Becker.

Saves:C-M. Siggins 3, MC-B. Shepherd 12.

Halftime score 1-1

LOYOLA TIES MCDONOGH, 1-1, IN SOCCER

Loyola’s Dave Phillips keeps the Dons alive with a goal at 0:04 of regulation.

Tyler Fiorito had only goal of the day for the McDonogh (9-1-2, 3-1-2), when he scored with 13:52 left in the first half.

Loyola dropped to 5-1-2 overall and 3-1-2 in the A Conference.

–Joe DiBlasi