This weekend at Homewood, the Blue Jays men’s Soccer team defeated the Washington College Shoremen 1-0 in the regular season finale to secure their spot in the Centennial Conference Tournament this upcoming weekend.
The Blue Jays dominated possession in the first half, generating multiple opportunities to score. The first came about halfway through the first half, when junior defender Jonah Muniz just missed putting the Blue Jays on the scoreboard.
Muniz shot at the corner of the box, bending it around the goalie and hitting the crossbar. A Shoremen defender received the rebound and cleared it out of Washington territory.
In the 37th minute, senior Victor Osio took a corner kick, sending the ball to junior midfielder Drew Collins, who wasted no time and took the shot from 25 yards out. The ball passed through the Shoremen defense, went past the goalkeeper’s left side and flew into the top right corner of the goal, giving the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead.
Collins’ goal also marks his second of the season and the second game-winning goal of his career.
“The go-ahead goal in the first half boosted the team’s morale,” Collins said. “Ultimately, we got the result that we needed and locked in a place at the Conference Tournament, which was our priority going into the game.”
The Jays continued their offensive aggression going into the second half of the game.
In the 56th minute, Osio had a one-on-one shot from 30 yards out, just missing left of the goal. Four minutes after Osio’s attempt, freshman midfielder and forward Achim Younker received a cross from sophomore midfielder Sebastian Salathe and headed the ball just a few feet over the goal.
Defensively, senior goalkeeper Bryan See saved all four of the Shoremen’s shots, preserving the shutout. See leads the conference with eight shutouts this season. He now has a career total 13 shutouts, tying for eighth in program history.
The Jays’ victory advanced their record to 12-3-2 on the season and stopped the Shoremen from improving their impressive seven-game winning streak.
During last year’s Centennial Conference Tournament, the Blue Jays first matchup was with the Swarthmore Garnet, in which they eased into a 5-0 shutout. The Blue Jays then advanced to play the Haverford Fords in the semifinals, where they were defeated.
Collins has high expectations for the Jays over the remainder of their campaign. “We are looking to rebound from last year’s conference tournament performance and earn ourselves an NCAA tournament bid,” Collins said.
The Blue Jays have a full week to recover, train and prepare before the Conference playoffs begin this weekend.
“Our training sessions this week will cover mainly the tactical strategies we will use in our game,” Collins said. “We will probably also incorporate a couple of film sessions to get a full understanding of what to expect from Franklin & Marshall next weekend.”
Collins explained the team is using the results from last year to motivate themselves as they approach the tournament this weekend and hopefully advance further this time around.
“The team is focused on winning the Conference Tournament for the first time in years,” he said. “We have the talent and the resilience to win the conference this year, so that’s where our heads are at. We are taking it one step at a time. If we get a couple wins this coming weekend, then we will start thinking about NCAAs.”
The Blue Jays earned a first-round bye in the Centennial Conference tournament and will face off against the second-ranked Franklin & Marshall Diplomats on Saturday.
