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3-1 defeat gives St. Patrick-St. Vincent first-round bye 

When the St. Mary’s soccer team lost 3-1 to St. Patrick-St. Vincent on Friday at home, they lost more than a game. The Panthers also surrendered second place in the BSAL, which would have meant a first-round bye in the playoffs. 

All St. Mary’s had to do was win or tie their final game of the regular season to clinch second place. When they went ahead 1-0 in the 28th minute on a beautiful goal by forward Ben Feldman, they looked to be in fine shape to take a rest on this coming Wednesday, when the first-round games are to be held. 

But the Panthers gave up the tying goal before halftime, then surrendered two more easy chances in the second half and lost. The visiting Bruins finished in second place and will have the bye. 

Feldman’s goal came as the result of a St. Mary’s free kick just outside the opposition’s box. Sweeper Nolan Horinouchi hit a sweet drive to midfielder Stephon McGrew, who chested the ball toward the goalmouth. Feldman just beat goalkeeper Kevin Kopple to the ball and nudged it over the line for a goal. 

But the Panthers spent much of the first half fending off slashing runs by Bruin forward Laguan Lea, who made easy work of defender Sean Rogan several times. But Rogan got the tying goal not from a mistake by Rogan but an error in judgement by Horinouchi. The senior tried to dribble the ball out of his own end, and Lea stripped him and went in on goal all by himself. St. Mary’s ’keeper Nick Osborne couldn’t stop him, and the game was all even. 

The second half started with both teams looking for the go-ahead goal, and the action swung from one end to the other with startling speed. Senior forward Pat Barry put McGrew on a breakaway with a nice chip pass, but Kopple came out bravely and stonewalled McGrew. 

Kopple was then forced to come nearly 40 yards out to turn away another Panther counter-attack, and it looked as if the Panthers were ready to pull away. 

“We were definitely playing for the win,” said St. Mary’s head coach Teale Matteson, who was well aware that his team only needed a tie to earn a bye. “That might have been a little bit of hubris on my part.” 

But the next Bruin rush ended in tragedy for St. Mary’s. The ball bounced around in the Panther box several times before settling at the feet of forward Evan Kesteloot 15 yards out, and he calmly slammed the ball past Osborne to give his team a 2-1 lead. 

The Panthers came right back and earned a corner kick, but midfielder Zack Huddleston headed just wide of the goal. Then disaster struck yet again. Horinouchi couldn’t handle a tough pass from his wing defender, and Kesteloot took advantage. He took the ball neatly for a breakaway, and slid the ball just past a diving Osborne to seal the game with 20 minutes left. 

“We hurt ourselves with mistakes today,” Matteson said. “Both teams made mistakes, but they capitalized on ours.” 

The Panthers were still a game bunch, and had two more decent scoring chances. But Barry hit his shot from 20 yards out over the bar, and McGrew put too much on a chip after he got behind the Bruin defense.