Friars break through late to hand Gaels upset

Come-from-behind win lifts Mt. St. Joseph to 3rd place in MIAA A Conference

Teams that go on to win championships often can look back to a defining game.

For the No. 4 Archbishop Curley boys soccer team, that might have come Saturday.

Playing No. 1 Mount Saint Joseph in front of a big crowd on homecoming, the host Friars got a game-winning goal from junior Ben Stitz in the final minute of overtime for a 2-1 come-from-behind victory over the Gaels. Frustrated, playing from behind and unable to break through for most of the game, Curley got a tying goal from senior defender Tyler Sosnowski with 5:18 left in regulation.

The Friars (13-3-2 overall) improved to 8-2-1 for third place in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference with 25 points. Mount Saint Joseph, which had gone 9-0-1 in its previous 10 games, is 10-2-1 overall and 9-2-1 for 28 points and second place in the league behind Calvert Hall (31 points).

Could this win be what lifts the Friars the rest of the season?

“I hope so,” Curley coach Barry Stitz said. “It’s one of those things where we like to think maybe we got a little bit over that hump in terms of finding a way to win a big game and making a play at the right time.”

Despite an 11 a.m. start, the Friars came out playing crisp and spent plenty of the time in the visitor’s end of the field in the first half. But a strong defense, led by Tyler Collins and Brett St. Martin, helped Mount Saint Joseph withstand the early pressure. The Gaels claimed the opening goal when Jake Mazzei headed home a cross from Andrew Robbins with 9:54 to play in the first half.

Unable to add to their lead despite a couple of chances in the second half — Curley goalie Nathan Wdzieczkowski came out to close down an opportunity by Diego Guerrero with 7:15 to play — the Gaels finally surrendered a goal when Sosnowski onetimed a pass from the right side on a free kick by Alejandro Arbelaez.

With momentum on their side, the Friars pressed for more, and Ben Stitz was right in front to tap in a rebound off shot by Arbelaez with 53 seconds left in overtime.

“The team played really hard today and we didn’t give up. We’re looking to get the No. 1 or No. 2 seed for the playoffs, and we knew if we are going to do that we’re going to have to win the rest of these games. So this is a really big win,” said Stitz, who has seven goals and seven assists this season.

“It was frustrating,” Stitz said of playing well but being unable to score for most of the game, “but we knew if we kept playing hard we were going to score. And once we scored, we knew we had a good chance of winning it.”

The loss stung the Gaels. They scored first and then gave up expected territory, but held their ground in their end up until the tying goal in the final minutes.

“I think the effort was tremendous. To come here with their crowd and go up 1-0 [was big]. Their [first] goal was off a foul that I thought Brett got up in the air and won a great header … and they score off that free kick,” Gaels coach Mike St. Martin said. “We had opportunities also to put it away when we were up 1-0 and we didn’t finish our chances. We’ll grow from this — that was my message to the team, that we’ll use this as motivation moving forward.” Goals: MSJ—Mazzei; C—Sosnowski, Stitz. Assists: MSJ—Robbins; C—Arbelaez. Saves: MSJ—DeShong 7; C—Gentry 3, Wdzieczkowski 2. Half: MSJ, 1-0.