Mount St. Mary’s men’s soccer defeated George Washington in a 1-0 victory on Sept. 22. There was a lot of anticipation coming into this meeting. In the previous match against George Washington back in February, Mount lost in an overtime game 1-0. From then on, this date has been a circled match on the team’s calendar.
From the start of the blowing whistle, the tone was set. George Washington came out with pressure on Mount Goalkeeper Ethan Russell. The first half resulted in seven shots at goal for George Washington, where the Mount had a mere one shot at goal.
Aside from the relentless shots at the goal, the match was a very physical one. There were three yellow cards given out in the first half alone. Two of them were given to George Washington Defenders Joshua Yurasits and Aaron Kronenberg. Mount Midfielder Stricker was also guilty of a yellow card in the first half.
As halftime hit, it was still 0-0. It was evident with how the match was going that one team was going to break through with a goal in the second half. It was just a matter of who was going to take advantage of their opportunity.
The second half began, and the match picked up where it left off. The intensity was high, players were getting more aggressive and things continued to get chippy. Finally, after many going back and forth, the match broke open with the first and only goal. Mount Forward Alek Wroblewski scored a beautiful chip shot over goalie in the 59th minute; it was just what the Mount needed. The goal was assisted with a superb pass gifted by Mount Midfielder Juan Molina.
Despite the goal scored by the Mount, they were not out of the woods yet. GW continued to make runs at the destination, attempting to tie up the match. The Colonials shot at goal 14 more times in the second half. They had multiple opportunities to put the ball in the back of the net, but that Mountaineer defense could hold up.
At the end of the match, the shots at goal for GW was 21. Only three of those shots were on target. For the Mount, they had three shots at goal, and all three were on target. That is a perfect example of quality over quantity.
Mount Head Coach Bryan Cunningham, on being asked how he felt about the defense and what he thought the team could carry into the next, said, “It all comes down to defending; you can’t win games if you leak in goals… in all fairness to the guys, we defended it well to the bitter end there and consequently got the win.”
On being asked why he felt the prior loss to GW motivated the team to come out with the victory, goal-scorer Alek Wroblewski said, “I think it’s always in the back of your head, you know! Like, last time we played, we lost. We thought, let’s get back at them and do what they did to us.”
This mentality from the players gave the Mount an edge to pull out a much-needed victory. The team will look to use this momentum to turn their season around. After all, it only takes one meaningful win to change the narrative.