Hong, Begrowicz Carry St. Joe's over Drury
PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- After playing Saint Joseph's tough in a close 4-3 loss in late September, the Drury boys' soccer team was probably expecting another tightly-contested match in Friday's rematch at Berkshire Community College.Just like the first game, senior Ryan Ouimet gave the Blue Devils a quick lead by scoring within the first minute of the game. Unfortunately for Drury, however, the two games differed in one aspect; St. Joe's quickly responded and never looked back on its way to a 6-1 win at home.
Ouimet's goal in the first game came 16 seconds after the opening kickoff. The Crusaders (10-7) followed that up, however, with two goals in the next 13 minutes to regain control of the match. Ouimet scored 12 seconds into the rematch, but St. Joe's was even better the second time around, scoring three goals over the next seven minutes to build a 3-1 halftime lead. Jongmun Hong scored two of his three goals in the game one minute apart for the hosts, while Matt Begrowicz added another strike in the seventh minute of play.
The Devils' defense caught its breath and was able to keep the game close until early in the second half. Begrowicz finished off a pass from Colin Anderson seven minutes after halftime to make it 4-1 before he and Hong finished off their hat tricks with late goals in the final five minutes of the game.
Drury's final game against Lee was canceled on Tuesday because of the effects of Hurricane Sandy, leaving the Blue Devils with a final record of 2-11-2.
"This was a tough ending to a tough season," Drury head coach Greg Caproni said. "We came out hot and scored 12 seconds into the game, but I thought I was having Deja vu because last time we played them we scored within seconds of the opening kickoff. St. Joe's played tough, worked themselves back into the game and built a sizable lead."
Ouimet's final goal on Friday gave him a team-leading eight goals to go along with two assists this season. Classmate Jacob Groves, who assisted on Ouimet's goal, was close behind with six tallies and a team-leading three assists.
Junior Joseph Liporace made 10 saves in goal for the Blue Devils, giving him 137 stops for the season. He faced a lot of pressure this year but he and the Drury defense will need to improve on its 4.5 goals allowed per game average moving forward.