It took Matthew Kuwik six minutes and eight seconds to start pulling the St. Mary’s College men’s soccer team out of its slide.
Kuwik’s rebound goal set the tone for a 3-1 United East Conference win over Keystone College on Saturday, Oct. 3. The result ended a five-game losing streak that began Sept. 13 and ran through Lehman, Johns Hopkins, Bridgewater (Va.), Penn State Abington and Penn State Harrisburg, according to the Seahawks’ season schedule. Every one of those losses came by one or two goals. The Seahawks improved to 4-7 overall and 1-2 in the UEC. Keystone fell to 4-6-1 and 2-1-0 in conference play.
How it unfolded
The first goal came off a chance that Nick Haney created. He fired in from the left side, Keystone goalkeeper James Kallens turned the shot away but couldn’t hold it, and Kuwik, a sophomore forward from Rockville, put back the rebound. It was his second goal of the season.
Keystone tested senior captain Zack Reed twice, in the eighth and 40th minutes, and the Leonardtown goalkeeper answered both. St. Mary’s went into halftime up 1-0.
Keystone leveled it in the 67th minute, when Marcos Louzada bent a free kick from the left side just inside the far post. The Seahawks responded with the game’s best sequence. In the 83rd minute, Kuwik crossed and junior midfielder Zach Blaum (Mechanicsville, Va./Atlee) headed it in for his fifth goal of the season. It was Kuwik’s first career assist.
Five minutes later, Haney finished it. He dribbled past one Keystone defender, split two others and sent a shot into the lower left corner.
Two local players at the center
Both the clincher and the saves came from players with Southern Maryland roots. Haney, a junior forward from Chesapeake Beach and a 2024 graduate of Northern High School, now has a team-leading seven goals. According to the release, he has scored in three of the team’s last four games. He finished Saturday with six shots, four of them on target, and Kuwik had five shots with two on target. Haney was a first-team All-United East pick last season and earned United East Offensive Player of the Week honors on Sept. 7 after scoring twice against Eastern Mennonite.
Reed, a 2023 Leonardtown High School graduate, made three saves and improved to 3-3 as the starter this season. He was named United East Defensive Player of the Week the same day Haney won his award. Kallens made seven saves for Keystone, which saw its two-game win streak end.
A statistical edge, and a road test
The numbers show how lopsided the match was. St. Mary’s outshot Keystone 20-8, including 10-5 on goal, and held a 9-4 edge in corner kicks.
The win came at home, where the Seahawks are 2-3. They are still 0-4 away from St. Mary’s City, though they are 2-0 at neutral sites. The next two games are both on the road. St. Mary’s visits Wilson College (1-6-2, 1-1-0 UEC) on Wednesday, Oct. 7, at 3:30 p.m. in Chambersburg, Pa. It then plays at Salisbury (8-1-2) on Saturday, Oct. 10, at 4 p.m. Salisbury has scheduled that match as its Senior Day and Homecoming. The Sea Gulls reached the Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference tournament final last season and return their top three goal scorers.
The Seahawks have been in a better place against Keystone. Exactly a year ago, they won 3-1 at La Plume to move to 5-0-0 in conference play. This season’s league record is 1-2, and Keystone, which was picked 10th in the United East preseason poll, was not the team St. Mary’s had to catch. Saturday was about the Seahawks’ own turnaround, and the Giants happened to be the opponent.
