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St. Mary’s season ends on sour note

By Jared Green Daily Planet Staff
Thursday February 08, 2001

Two weeks ago, the St. Mary’s soccer team beat St. Joseph Notre Dame (Alameda) 2-1. At the time, the Panthers were at the top of their game, looking forward to a run at first place, and the Pilots were scuffling along at 1-4 in BSAL play, just hoping to eke out a spot in the playoffs.  

The Pilots did manage to slip into the playoffs as the sixth and final seed by winning three of their last four games. Meanwhile, St. Mary’s lost to league power Kennedy and took a surprising loss to St. Patrick-St. Vincent to end the season. That loss knocked St. Mary’s out of first place and a first-round bye, setting up the home matchup with the St. Joseph. 

With three key players out, the Panthers couldn’t hold off the surging Pilots, losing 1-0 on a controversial goal. 

The teams had battled for 75 minutes with no goals, with each team missing several chances throughout the game. But when St. Mary’s backup goalkeeper Mark Pankow collided with sweeper Nolan Horinouchi and couldn’t come up with a cross cleanly, chaos broke loose in front of the goal. Pankow nearly recovered the ball, but had it kicked away by a Pilot. St. Joseph substitute Robert Dooley pounced on the ball and slammed it into the back of the net for the lead. 

St. Mary’s head coach Teale Matteson protested that Pankow had the ball kicked out of his hands, but his pleas fell on deaf ears, and after St. Mary’s midfielder Stephon McGrew blew a breakaway with two minutes left, the Panthers’ season was over. 

“The referees said Mark didn’t have control of the ball, so they didn’t afford him the normal protection given to the goalie,” Matteson said after the game. “I saw it as the goalie being fouled trying to make a save.” 

Matteson said despite his dispute with the deciding goal, he took nothing away from a ferocious St. Joseph team. 

“You create your own luck, and I can’t begrudge them anything,” he said. “The better team is the one that capitalizes on its opportunities, and today that was St. Joseph.” 

Although the Pilots barely made the playoffs, the result wasn’t as much of an upset as one might think. Head coach Jason Eisele’s team lost by just one goal to Kennedy and St. Mary’s, and tied second-place St. Patrick’s. Following the earlier loss to St. Mary’s, Eisele guaranteed his team would win a playoff game, and his team followed through on his promise. 

“A number six seed doesn’t do us justice,” said St. Joseph captain Jeffrey Gonzalez. “We’re a better team than they realize.” 

Eisele took the opportunity to make another prediction. 

“We’re going to be the first number six seed to win the league,” he said. 

The Panthers had plenty of chances to score on Tuesday, but just couldn’t finish them. They had three shots on goal in the first five minutes, and the St. Joseph defenders were resorting to clearing the ball blindly. But Gonzalez was able to start several counter-attacks, and Pankow, who started in place of the injured Nick Osborne, had to come out hard on several occasions to stop breakaways. 

St. Mary’s forward Pat Barry and McGrew both had several nice runs through the Pilot defense, but were turned back or mishit their shots every time. 

Notes: St. Mary’s Barry was voted to the first-team All-BSAL team after leading the league with 66 points in the regular season. Barry was the only player in the league to be named on every possible ballot (coaches are not allowed to vote for their own players). McGrew, Horinouchi and midfielder Zack Huddleston were voted to the second team.