It was another heartbreaking loss for the St. Mary’s College of Maryland men’s soccer team Wednesday night, Sept. 16, as the Seahawks (3-5-0) dropped their third one-goal loss of the season, falling 1-0 at Johns Hopkins University (3-2-1) in non-conference action in Baltimore.
How it happened
Johns Hopkins was the aggressor in the first half, outshooting St. Mary’s College 7-3 and doubling up the Seahawks 4-2 in corner kicks. The Blue Jays broke through in the 29th minute when Jason Pan finished a pass from Rohan Aggarwal into the lower right corner for his first goal of the season.
St. Mary’s College picked up the tempo over the final 45 minutes, edging Hopkins 9-7 in shots and posting a 7-2 margin in corner kicks, but couldn’t find an equalizer. Hopkins goalkeeper John Ghanem turned away a shot by junior midfielder Zach Blaum (Mechanicsville, Va./Atlee) just 39 seconds into the second half that was headed for the top left of the goal. Ghanem came up big again in the 85th minute, denying another Blaum shot to the bottom left.
Inside the box score
Johns Hopkins finished with a 14-12 edge in shots, including a 4-3 margin in shots on goal. St. Mary’s College controlled corner kicks, 9-6, and held a 12-7 edge in fouls committed by Hopkins, while SMCM was whistled for one offside to Hopkins’ none.
St. Mary’s College
Blaum led the Seahawks with three shots, including two on target. Senior captain Zack Reed (Leonardtown, Md./Leonardtown) made three saves in goal. Lucas Evans, Nick Haney and Marco Mazzola each added two shots for St. Mary’s College.
Johns Hopkins
Brendan Lisztwan tallied a game-best four shots, one on target, while Pan scored his goal on three shots. Ghanem finished with three saves for his second clean sheet of the season. The result extended Hopkins’ dominance in the all-time series to 29-0-1.
Up next
St. Mary’s College travels to face Bridgewater (Va.) (4-1-0) on Saturday, Sept. 19, at 3 p.m. at the Bridgewater Soccer Complex.
The loss comes on the heels of a busy stretch for the Seahawks, who split a pair of games at their home Seahawk Classic last weekend after Nick Haney’s five-point performance lifted them past Eastern Mennonite and Zack Reed’s eight saves preserved a scoreless draw with McDaniel. Haney and Reed were both named United East Players of the Week following that stretch, and the team had entered the season ranked atop the United East preseason poll.
