No. 2 Loyola Blakefield, No. 3 John Carroll battle to a 1-1 OT draw

When the second and final 10-minute overtime concluded with nothing settled Monday, the John Carroll and Loyola Blakefield boys soccer teams walked off the field with different viewpoints on the 1-1 draw.

The host and No. 3 Patriots, who carried play in larger stretches, were disappointed in the inability to finish off more scoring chances. The No. 2 Dons, who got the tying goal from junior Lucas DuBois midway through the second half, appeared more satisfied after staying the course to get a valuable point in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference standings.

At the midway point of the league slate, John Carroll (7-1-2) remains in second place with a 6-1-2 league mark for 20 points. Loyola stays right behind in third, going to 6-2-1 for 19 points.

Less than a minute after the Patriots had a great chance to pad their 1-0 lead, DuBois ran on to a short pass from Stefan Garefalakis before finding the top right corner from 12 yards with 20:06 left in the second half.

“Stef got the ball coming across, and I saw a great pocket to run through, he fed me the ball — great goal, top right corner,” said DuBois.

“At the start of the game, we came out a little flat but throughout the game we kept firing, showed how good we are and around the 20th minute I went out there and got that done. It was a great game overall.”

The Patriots pressed for significant chunks in the first half with Luke Meija finally breaking through for the home team — crashing the goal to chase down a through ball sent right in front by Josh Petty for a 1-0 lead with 11:49 to play until the break.

Some quality goalkeeping from Dons senior Jordy Eckman (six saves) and other chances off the mark kept the Patriots from extending their advantage. Just prior to DuBois’ equalizer, Petty did well to set up his left foot from 12 yards but hit a heavy shot over the crossbar.

“When you let a quality side like them hang around, they are going to get some chances, and odds are they’re probably going to score in a game. If we were a little bit cleaner with some of those opportunities we could have extended our lead,” said John Carroll coach Jim Fendryk.

After the confidence-boosting tying goal, the Dons had their possession game working well in the final part of the second half but were unable to break through with a go-ahead goal. With 1:20 left, Garefalakis had a chance thwarted by strong defense from Chris Supan.

The Patriots had the better of the two overtimes, but the Dons stayed organized defensively to secure the tie.

“The boys battled hard, and I think the game had ebbs and flows both ways,” said Loyola coach Lee Tschantret. “We had teams play two completely different styles, and I think both styles were effective at different points in the game. They had some effectiveness with playing into* the channels in long and I think we had some effectiveness with building and trying to create opportunities that way. I honestly thought a tie was a fair result.”

Loyola returns to league play on Wednesday, hosting Mount Saint Joseph at 4 p.m. John Carroll next visits league foe Gilman at 4:15 p.m. Friday.