St. Mark’s Matthew Theodorakis (No. 15) cuts past St. Elizabeth’s Benjamin Bryan (No. 18) in the first half of St. Mark’s 2-1 win over St. Elizabeth’s at St. Mark’s High School on Thursday afternoon.
MILL CREEK – The St. Mark’s boys soccer team has yet to lose a match this season, but that doesn’t mean they feel they’ve played up to their standards.
So when an early two-goal lead became a 2-1 nail-biter of a win over Catholic Conference foe St. Elizabeth on Thursday afternoon, the Spartans were less than pleased with their efforts in running their record to 5-0-2 in the 2016 season.
“We’ve got to do a better job of finishing teams off,” Spartans head coach Dan Swasey said. “We got off to a good start, but we got complacent in the second half.”
“It’s what we’ve done all year,” said senior forward Chris Ludman, who scored St. Mark’s first goal off a corner kick with 33:40 to go in the first half. “It’s always nice to get off to a good start, but we still haven’t played a full 80 minutes of soccer yet this season.”
Ludman’s goal came off of a corner kick from Ryan Donovan that eluded the grasp of Vikings goalkeeper Ethan Downs, landing directly in front of Ludman on the left side, who deposited the ball in the net.
Just about five minutes later, Michael Scalia took a pass from Colin O’Brien and zipped the ball under Downs’ diving save attempt for an early 2-0 St. Mark’s lead.
“It’s a confidence booster,” Scalia said of the quick start. “But we need to keep the intensity up going forward.”
Intensity wasn’t a problem for the persistent Vikings (3-5) as they kept plugging away until Martin Newswanger beat Eric Ludman to the left corner on a penalty kick with 16 minutes to go in the game to tighten things up at 2-1.
“Anxious,” Swasey said of his mood when St. E pulled to within a goal. “They have a really good team over there and we knew they were going to make a run at us.”
That goal was close as the Vikings would get as the Spartans managed to keep their unbeaten record alive, but not without some lessons learned.
“It’s a win,” Swasey said. “We’ll watch the video, learn from this and get better for the next game.”
“We have potential,” Scalia said. “We just need to stay calm and play with total team effort.”
Ethan Downs stopped eight shots for St. Elizabeth on the afternoon.
St. Mark’s Christopher Ludman puts a shot on goal in the first half of St. Mark’s 2-1 win over St. Elizabeth’s at St. Mark’s High School on Thursday afternoon.
St. Elizabeth goalkeeper Ethan Downs punches the ball away from St. Mark’s Seth Bialecki in the first half of St. Mark’s 2-1 win over St. Elizabeth’s at St. Mark’s High School on Thursday afternoon.
St. Elizabeth goalkeeper Ethan Downs punches the ball away on a corner kick as St. Mark’s Christopher Ludman (left) and Seth Bialecki crash into him in the first half of St. Mark’s 2-1 win over St. Elizabeth’s at St. Mark’s High School on Thursday afternoon.
St. Mark’s Seth Bialecki heads the ball over a group of players in the first half of St. Mark’s 2-1 win over St. Elizabeth’s at St. Mark’s High School on Thursday afternoon.
St. Mark’s Colin O’Brien (No. 4) and St. Elizabeth’s Robert Miller (No. 17) chase down the ball in the first half of St. Mark’s 2-1 win over St. Elizabeth’s at St. Mark’s High School on Thursday afternoon.
St. Elizabeth’s Kevin Marchioni heads the ball as teammate Austin Figliola (No. 24) and St. Mark’s Ryan Donovan look on in the first half of St. Mark’s 2-1 win over St. Elizabeth’s at St. Mark’s High School on Thursday afternoon.
St. Mark’s Michael Scalia shoots and scores a goal in the first half of St. Mark’s 2-1 win over St. Elizabeth’s at St. Mark’s High School on Thursday afternoon.
St. Mark’s Peter Coker II (No. 13) lines up the ball next to St. Elizabeth’s Chase Dunlap (No. 23) in the first half of St. Mark’s 2-1 win over St. Elizabeth’s at St. Mark’s High School on Thursday afternoon.