by Peter Dalmasy
Contributing Reporter
A hot and sunny Thursday afternoon on the confines of Mount St. Joseph proved to be a flawless setting for one of the MIAA ‘A’ Conference’s regular season opening soccer matchup between the host Gaels and visiting Loyola Blakefield.
Both teams lost several Division I players to graduation last season which includes Mount St. Joseph’s Uche Ukoha (Villanova), Vince Garafalo (Holy Cross), Adam Santiago (High Point) and Loyola’s talented trio of David Butler (St. Francis, PA), Steven LeVine (Towson), and three-sport standout Steele Stanwick (Virginia).
But both teams proved to have replaced these significant contributors with a fresh, new breed of athletes.
Thursday’s game also marked the first time the Gaels’ varsity soccer team has played on the new state of the art turf surface on Plevyak Field. Last season, St. Joe’s home games were played on the campus of Stevenson University as the renovations forced both the varsity soccer and football teams to play all their home games away from home.
The match proved to be a hard and leveled fight all the way through the first quarter as each team’s goalkeeper would make save after save.
Loyola would be the first to strike as junior Brian Cannon came off the bench for head coach Lee Tschantret to give the Dons a 1-0 lead right before heading into halftime as he netted a goal from the left side of the box right past St. Joe junior goalie Brad Benzing (35:15).
The Dons would have the advantage early but the fight was not over.
The Gaels came out poised and ready to make their comeback. It took just under six minutes for freshman Jalen Robinson, brother of current St. Joe varsity running back Renard Robinson, to free him apart from the opposing Dons and find the net. His goal would even the score for head coach Mike St. Martin and his fellow Gaels teammates.
St. Joe took over the lead with 26:15 remaining in the second half when junior forward David Arnold escaped a swarm of Loyola defenders to send the ball into the net to keep the Gaels over the Dons 2-1.
Just as St. Joe tied the game earlier, visiting Loyola would later answer back again with 11:00 minutes remaining in the game on another rebound goal. This time it would be junior Douglas Adjei who struck a ball that hit the crossbar and fell right back to his feet for the easy tap-in.
Both teams had several chances to give their teams the decision in the closing minutes of regulation as Loyola senior captain David Phillips barely missed a shot with eight minutes remaining as did Gaels junior Geaton Caltabiano on a free-kick that went directly into Loyola’s wall of defenders.
At the end of regulation the score was tied 2-2.
It seemed as if overtime was just as well played as regulation was, but this was not the case. Both teams were ferociously on the brink to capture the decision for their respective school.
Loyola’s Adjei was inches close to helping the Dons escape Irvington with a victory on a well placed kick, only to be powered away on a critical save by an alert Benzing with 8:19 left in overtime remaining. That would be the final serious opportunity Loyola would have to get the win. From that point on, the Gaels set their eyes on winning in fashion for the little time left remaining.
Excitement and relief finally arose from the St. Joe sideline as senior captain Jonathan Stephenson, who missed nearly all of last season with a lacerated kidney suffered in an early match against Calvert Hall, knocked in the game-winning goal in the final seconds of stoppage time to pilot the Gaels to a 3-2 conference victory.
This was not the first time Stephenson had felt the pressure to belt in a buzzer-beating goal. His freshman year on the junior varsity he was also responsible for winning his team the championship under similar circumstances. However, Stephenson was first to note that on the varsity level “it felt even better.â€
“I’m just thinking the game winner is going to come, and the team just had to wait for it. The goal was going to come eventually,†said Stephenson when asked about his initial thoughts when stepping on the field for the extra-time session. “It was a hot day, from the guys giving water on the bench to the rest of the squad out on the field, being hot like this, you need to credit everybody on the team,†Stephenson adds.
Dons senior forward David Phillips was pleased with what they did against the Gaels. “Either team could have won of the game today. I think we had a strong effort, Mount St. Joe is a great team, and if we played like we did today and get better as the season goes a long we will definitely be coming away with wins in the conference this season,†said an encouraging Phillips.
Next up the Dons (0-1) will look to see if they can defeat the reigning ‘A’ Conference champions McDonogh on the road before they head home next Thursday for their home opener versus arch-rival Calvert Hall.
Mount St. Joseph (1-0) travels to Dulaney on Saturday to compete in the Lions Invitational Tournament before traveling to Archbishop Curley on Tuesday.
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