BRONX, N.Y. – The Saint Joseph’s University men’s soccer team saw its season end in heartbreaking fashion Wednesday night, falling to Fordham in a penalty shootout after a scoreless 110 minutes in the Atlantic 10 Championship Quarterfinals. The match, played at Fordham’s Coffey Field, concluded with a 5-4 shootout victory for the Rams, ending the Hawks’ postseason run.
St. Joe’s and Fordham battled through a tightly contested match,with the Rams holding a 24-14 shot advantage and a 5-3 edge in shots on goal. Hawks goalkeeper, Greg Jennings, proved crucial, recording five saves to maintain a clean sheet for St.Joe’s – their fifth of the season.
The Hawks had a late opportunity in regulation time, but Jake Ross’s shot was turned away with just over a minute remaining. Both teams registered a single shot during the two 10-minute overtime periods, failing to break the deadlock.
In the penalty shootout, Luke Johnson opened the scoring for St. Joe’s, followed by a save from Jennings to give the Hawks a 1-0 led. Kobe Perlaza and Rossetto both converted their attempts, but Fordham matched with two goals of their own, leaving the score at 3-2 in favor of St. Joe’s after three rounds.
The fourth round saw a Hawks attempt go wide, and Fordham leveled the score at 3-3 after a deflection off Jennings’ fingertips found the back of the net. Freshman David Murray then confidently scored for St. Joe’s,only for Fordham to respond and send the game into sudden death. Ultimately, a save by the Rams’ goalkeeper and a subsequent Fordham goal sealed the victory for the hosts.
Seven Hawks played the full 110 minutes. This marked St. Joe’s third postseason appearance since 1994 and the first under head coach Tim Mulqueen, who completed his inaugural season.
“My heart breaks for our seniors,” said Coach Mulqueen. “But I am incredibly proud of these men.They’ve showed the resilience and character that we want this team to define and they’ve poured their hearts into building a foundation for this program this past year.”
Mulqueen added, “The game is unforgiving. These boys worked their tails off and the effort they showed tonight was everything you want as a coach. But that’s part of the game, sometimes you need a little bit of luck and unfortunately tonight that didn’t fall our way.”
