St Johns Rallies Late to Nip Cards in WCAC Soccer tourney, 2-1

Senior captain Dan O’Keefe’s long drive staked the Cardinals to a 1-0 lead early in the game and Eyobell Behre and company held the defensive end with freshman Spencer Amarantides in goal on a windy November afternoon in Washington DC. Both squads had a number of opportunities, but the Cardinals luck with with them for the first 66 minutes of the contest.

But as the sun waned in the autumn sky, a Cadets shot caught Amarantides off balance, and while he made the save, he stumbled backward and, in the linesman’s judgment, crossed the goal line to give the host team a tie, a call the Cards did not dispute. A little more than 4 minutes remaining in the first round WCAC championship playoff game, St Johns capitalized on an Ireton lapse and grabbed a 2-1 lead.

Ireton counterattacked, beginning with O’Keefe’s long drive from the center circle that sailed straight but just high over the crossbar to begin the Cardinals rally. Alan Boyce rang a screaming shot off the far right corner of the goal posts in the game’s final minute, but the ball caroomed away and St Johns hung on for their second win in three encounters with the Cardinals this fall. The Cadets move on to second seeded Gonzaga on Tuesday while the Cardinals headed home to Alexandria, the 2010 campaign in the books.