Cardinals, Dons are moving on
For the Calvert Hall soccer team to stay on even terms at Mount Saint Joseph for 100 minutes of play with the season on the line spoke volumes, especially considering the Gaels were three goals better in the regular-season game three weeks ago.
But the visiting Cardinals did even better when the teams’ Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference quarterfinal came down to penalty kicks Tuesday.
Calvert Hall proved precise on all six of the needed PKS — with Ben Bender, Nick Long, Luke Ferrarese, Stephen Welsh, Michael Gisreal and Payton Madore stepping up — and when the home team had its sixth chance go over the crossbar, the No. 7 Cardinals were moving on to the semifinal round with a 2-1 overtime win over the No. 3 Gaels — 6-5 in the shootout round.
Calvert Hall, seeded third in the Red Division with a 9-6-1 mark, will visit No. 1 Archbishop Curley (15-2-1) at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday in the semifinals.
“We lost to them 3-0 at home and a lot of people were down on us, told us that that’s not Calvert Hall soccer,” Calvert Hall coach Rich Zinkand said. “So we’ve gotten better over the last couple weeks and today was just an all-out effort from our guys.
“We have a large number of seniors and obviously they don’t want their season to end. You never know what you’re going to get until your backs are against the wall after 100 minutes and then you go to PK’s, and the boys just came through.”
The Cardinals started fast to set an important playoff tone and Bender, who helped clinch their playoff spot with two goals against John Carroll in last week’s regular-season finale, stood out again with an opening goal in the 11th minute.
After Hayden Lim had his initial shot from the left side blocked, it came right back to him and he quickly dropped it back to Bender, who one-timed a left-footed strike from 20-plus yards for the early advantage.
The Gaels (13-4-1) showed added urgency early in the second half and quickly leveled the game at 1-1 when Miles Lam headed home a cross sent in by Van Danielson just six minutes into play.
The home team had a couple quality chances that weren’t converted — one late in regulation and a second in overtime — before the game was decided on penalty kicks.
While all the Cardinals had clean strikes on their penalty-kick tries, Cardinals goalie Andrew Levis got a hand on three Mount Saint Joseph attempts that ended up going in. After Madore scored to make it 6-5, the Gaels’ bid to once again tie sailed just high over the crossbar.
“Unbelievable,” said Zinkand. “Wehad a couple guys that were out there for 100 minutes. Payton Madore got in maybe the last minute of the game, but he’s confident taking PK’s. Just picked a spot — calm, cool, collected and then he put it in a corner.”
The win sets up a rubber match against Curley on Thursday. The Friars beat Calvert Hall 3-1 on Sept. 6, then the Cardinals handed Curley its only league loss for the Reif Cup on Oct. 11 — a 3-2 overtime game.
Bender, an all-metro midfielder/forward, was excited about Tuesday’s effort and is looking forward to another big challenge Thursday.
“It’s just another opportunity to be out with the guys that I love hanging out with every day,” he said. “It’s definitely going to take another big effort from us. ... [ We’ll need to come up with a plan and I think we’ll be OK.”
Mount Saint Joseph coach Mike St. Martin said it was just one of those days of soccer that wasn’t meant to be and credited Calvert Hall’s performance.
“All you can ask is to leave it out there on the field and they did,” he said. “The effort was there. ... I don’t think we have any regrets as far as the way we played and the effort we put forth.”
No. 5 Loyola Blakefield 2, No. 15 Gilman 1: The host Dons (11-4-2) got an overtime goal from Kwaku Marfo-Sarbeng to rally past Gilman in the MIAA A’s other quarterfinal-round game.
Loyola will travel to No. 2 McDonogh in Thursday’s semifinal — a rematch of last year’s title game. McDonogh beat the Dons in penalty kicks in 2018.
Julian Schmugge scored the Dons’ other goal in the 66th minute.