By Liam O’Murchu (@Liam_0__)
Men’s soccer extended their eight game winless streak with a 2-0 loss to St. Louis on Wednesday afternoon at home.
Despite the beautiful weather and an improved performance, the Revolutionaries (2-7-3, 0-4 A10) were unable to score for the sixth game in a row. Meanwhile, the Billikens (5-3-2, 3-0-1 A10) showed why they were the preseason favorites to win the conference and received votes in Tuesday’s United Soccer Coaches poll.
“We played better than we probably have in the last couple of games,” GW head coach Craig Jones said. “So I couldn’t fault the effort. We kept going, we created some stuff today that we probably haven’t in the last couple of games. So I told the guys I’m proud of the performance.”
SLU had a lot of the ball to start but struggled to break down a compact GW team that lined up in a 5-back formation for the third straight match. The Billikens had the Revs pinned in and in the 14th minute, the pressure paid off. After some nice hold up play by sophomore forward CJ Coppola, he laid it off to redshirt sophomore defender Galen Flynn, who curled it into junior forward Seth Anderson. Anderson snuck into the space behind GW senior defender Carter Humm and made no mistake, putting the Billikens up early.
Some more chances came as a result of the SLU pressure, including a chaotic sequence off a corner in the 23nd minute that included a failed GW clearance and muffed shot by junior midfielder Brian Johnson but culminated in a Billikens player being called offside.
In the 25th minute, the Revs got forward quickly in an attack sparked by freshman defender Yago Torres, who beat two Billikens off the dribble before running at the SLU backline and beating another two with a through ball to freshman forward George Vincent. But redshirt freshman goalkeeper Mason Hart was quick off his line and blocked Vincent’s shot with his chest.
“The best chance in open play today was ours, in the first half,” Jones said. “And George missed.”
GW built on this momentum with another foray into the attack moments later when graduate student midfielder Will Turner drove at the defense, got to the endline and cut it back before St. Louis was able to clear.
As the Revs started to throw more numbers forward, SLU looked to strike on the counter. In the 38th minute, the Billikens played it long to sophomore forward Matthew Wrobel, who only had graduate student midfielder Roee Tenne to beat. But Tenne did well to stay with Wrobel despite allowing the ball to bounce and eventually cleared it away.
A minute later freshman defender Joe Liebe got a head on a long throw from Turner, intending to flick it to a teammate. But instead the ball bounced across the face of goal and just wide of the far post. At this point it was clear that the Revs provided some danger forward, even if they were unable to put the ball in the net and St. Louis had a stellar defensive record coming into the match.
In the 60th minute Turner went down after a nasty head to head collision and immediately went to the locker room, joining four other important GW players who were out injured. This included freshmen defenders Colin Prendergast and John Matlock, senior defender Lucas Matuszewski, and sophomore attacker Alex Nicholson. Jones told me he doesn’t expect any of them back for the next game and that Prendergast’s absence had a particularly big impact.
“I think Colin has been our best defender this year,” Jones said. “So we certainly missed him, both defensively and on some set play stuff where he’s been able to connect.”
Moments after Turner left the game, freshman midfielder Nico Medina looped in what seemed like a harmless ball to the back post. Hart jumped up and grabbed it before falling into his own goal with the ball outstretched in his hands. As Hart continued to lose his balance and fall backwards, he was forced to toss the ball out to avoid an own goal. Did the ball cross the line? GW seemed to think so. But crucially the referees did not agree (it should be said that the assistant referee was a bit late to catch up with the play so he did not have the best angle).
GW continued to get forward and had a few half chances, including a Medina shot that was blocked and a shot from freshman midfielder Ben Hissrich that was saved easily by Hart. But in the 66th minute, the Revs truly tested Hart for the first time since he almost walked into his own goal with the ball. Vincent played Torres through on goal and Torres fired a shot on the ground towards the far post that Hart got down quickly to stop before a SLU defender cleared it over the crossbar.
Throughout the second half, the Billikens were doing plenty of attacking too and won a penalty in the 69th minute after Anderson fired a shot off the arm of Liebe on top of the box. It’s probably a harsh penalty to award considering Liebe’s arm was by his side and he didn’t have time to get it out of the way of the shot. But it is technically a penalty according to the rules (which seem to change every year).
“For us to make any kind of idea of what it means, it’s pointless,” Jones said. “Because these refs are all refereeing in different leagues, and every league seems to be different. College is certainly different from the pros in terms of how they interpret it. So when they come to this field, I have no idea how they’re going to interpret it. I didn’t see it. If the ref says it’s a PK, we have to live with it.”
Either way, redshirt junior midfielder Christian Buendia stepped up and put his penalty down the middle as GW freshman goalkeeper Tom Macauley dove to his right. The deficit was now doubled and a team that hadn’t scored since September 10 had to score twice in 20 minutes.
GW pushed forward at times in the final part of the game, benefiting from the switch to a 4-3-3. But they could not put one in and haven’t scored in 708 minutes from open play (that is 66% of their season) and haven’t scored at all in the last 550 minutes.
“I probably read four books on defending set plays in the last four weeks and that didn’t work,” Jones said. “I did the same thing on how to score goals in open play. Didn’t work.”
However, this St. Louis team is very good. They sit 24th in RPI and have the 11th best strength of schedule in the country while only conceding eight goals through 10 games and only one in conference play. The Billikens have won the A10 the last two seasons and currently sit in the driver’s seat to do so a third year in a row. If they pull off the three-peat they would be the first team to do so since Penn State won three straight from 1987-89 (the first three years the A10 sponsored men’s soccer).
There is no shame in losing to this Billikens team that has shown they are the class of the Atlantic 10 and even made the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament in 2021 before bowing out in the second round last year. Being a juggernaut in a sport like college soccer can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. When you’re good, people pay attention and donate money to fund the program and build elite facilities (which SLU have). When you have fans and nice facilities, you’re able to recruit players who have the talent to play professionally (which SLU has done).
“The program is funded extremely well, as most sports there are,” Jones said. “I mean, I’ve got one coach, they have five. So that just tells you the level of commitment they put into soccer, in terms of what they do on both sides, men’s and women’s.”
GW will look to return to winning ways for the first time in over a month when they welcome St. Bonaventure to the Vern on Saturday at 3PM. That game can be streamed on ESPN+.
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