Mount Everett, St. Joe Boys Play to Stalemate
PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- The first time the St. Joseph boys soccer team faced Mount Everett this year, the Eagles flew off with a 3-1 win.
On Tuesday, the Crusaders played Mount Everett to a 1-1 stalemate at Clapp Park.
You might think that St. Joe would take some satisfaction in that. And you'd be wrong.
"We should have won the game," St. Joseph coach Juan Ramos said. "Very disappointing. It's a dropdown from the way we've been playing."
The Crusaders (5-1-4) took a 1-0 lead into half-time but were thoroughly outplayed over the last 40 minutes.
"The disappointing part is the way we played in the second half is uncharacteristic," Ramos said. "And the attitude of some of my players drives me crazy.
"The normal reaction by the other team when they're down 1-0 is to come out harder, and we didn't match it. We just let them do everything they wanted. That was the difference."
On the other sideline, the Eagles were not exactly feeling like a team that could "do what it wanted."
"We're a little frustrated right now," Eagles coach Joshua King said. "We played with better intensity in the second half. But playing all these teams in the South [Division], you have to come to play for 80 minutes. If you take time off, it's going to bite you, and that's what happened today."
St. Joe capitalized on Mount Everett's sluggish start about 29 minutes into the game. With Eagles keeper Ryan Meyer off his line, Thien Nguyen alertly chipped a ball from the top of the 18 over the top and into the goal to give his team a 1-0 lead.
At the other end, Joey Maynard made seven of his 14 saves in the first half to maintain that advantage.
Mount Everett turned up the pressure in the second half, earning six corner kicks and eight shots on goal.
The one that counted came from Dan Litchfield, who cashed in a Nick Tomach assist midway through the half to even the score.
St. Joe, which has yet to win two games in a row, takes more than a week off before hosting Hoosac Valley next Wednesday in a rematch of a 1-1 tie from last week.
Mount Everett (7-1-2) will look to snap a two-game winless streak on Friday at Westfield Vocational.
"I think part of the problem is we're starting to get a little complacent with our record," King said. "We, as an entire unit, need to get back to the drawing board and work hard. The record isn't going to mean anything come tournament time if we play like that."