St. Mary’s College of Maryland’s men’s soccer team opened its season with a 3-1 road loss at Hood College on Tuesday, a rough start for a program that enters the year as a two-time defending United East Conference champion.
The two sides looked headed for a scoreless first half until Hood benefited from an own goal with just 38 seconds left before the break. SMCM answered quickly out of the gate in the second half — senior transfer Maximus Cerulla knotted the score at 1-1 in the 56th minute for his first goal as a Seahawk. Hood regained the lead in the 72nd minute on a goal from Aidan Wright, and closed out the win with a penalty-kick conversion from N’Tony Kalala in the 88th minute.
SMCM actually out-shot Hood 15-13 on the afternoon but trailed in the categories that mattered more, managing just five shots on goal to Hood’s eight and conceding a 7-4 edge in corner kicks. Junior forward Nick Haney led the Seahawks with four shots, and he and Cerulla each put two on frame. Senior captain Zack Reed took the loss in net despite making six saves; Hood’s Adam Labows earned the win with four stops of his own.
The result opens the season on an unfamiliar note for a program that’s been anything but ordinary in recent years. SMCM enters 2026 off a third consecutive 11-win season, having gone 11-7-3 overall and a perfect 8-0-0 in conference play in 2025, en route to back-to-back United East tournament titles, a regular-season conference championship, and consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. Head coach Alun Oliver, a 2004 SMCM graduate and the program’s all-time wins leader, is now in his 16th season at the helm after taking over in February 2011.
The Seahawks will look to bounce back this weekend at a neutral-site tournament in Salisbury, facing Albertus Magnus on Sept. 4 at 4 p.m. and Eastern Mennonite on Sept. 5 at 2 p.m., both at Sea Gull Stadium.
