St. Paul’s Holiday Tournament: After Loss to Brother Martin, Jesuit Bounces Back with Victory Over Grace King

Hunt Navar draws the Grace King goalie out and dribbles past him, to score Jesuit’s second goal of the match. The goal came with five minutes left in the match and gave Jesuit a 2-0 lead. They needed it because moments later, the Irish made it 2-1 on a penalty kick. The ref blew his whistle ending the match about 60 seconds later for Jesuit to preserve a 2-1 victory and third place in the St. Paul’s Holiday Tournament.

Into the Lens: View the Jesuit – Grace King Photo Gallery

Jesuit forgot about its shutout at the feet of Brother Martin, 1-0, on Saturday (December 17) and returned to Hunter Field on Monday to take on another district foe in Grace King with third place at stake in the St. Paul’s Holiday Tournament.

The Jays’ sophomore striker Ashton Perkins scored in the first three minutes. Perkins holed a free kick from 25 yards out, putting such spin on the ball, that the Grace King goalie missed it. “I put the shot in and the keeper just messed up,” said Perkins.

After Ashton Perkins (18) scored in the third minute, there were plenty of chances for Jesuit to kill the game. In this photo, the ball ricochets off the post and gets past Perkins, who can’t quite put his foot into stuffing it.

Scoring that early usually results in the team going in for the kill. Instead, the Jays muffed numerous opportunities in the rest of the first half and most of the second half. With about five minutes left in the match, senior midfielder Hunt Navar worked his way past defenders, drawing the Irish goalie out, and virtually tapping in for the Jays’ second goal, a 2-0 cushion that did not last long.

Inside the two minute injury stoppage time, the Jays were flagged for a penalty inside their box. Grace King made good on the penalty kick — junior goalie Shane Lanson figured the ball would go left but zinged right instead — to cut Jesuit’s margin to a slim 2-1. Fortunately for the Jays, 60 seconds later, the referee ended the match.

“It was a game where we created a ton of chances in the first half, enough to kill the game,” said Coach Hubie Collins. “A 1-0 margin always leaves a door or window open for the other team, so the second goal was a big goal for us. I was happy to see that we created scoring opportunities, and happy to see we kept a clean sheet except for a PK at the end. But we made it a little bit difficult for us because getting that second and third goal would have killed the game off a long, long time ago.”

Navar, who scored the late second goal, gave the Irish a lot of credit.

“Grace King is a good team that provided a lot of pressure, you can’t doubt them,” he said. “We have to play good soccer to play this team correctly. We pulled together and played good soccer, and that got us the win.”

The win secured third place for the Jays in the annual tournament and improves their overall record to 6-3-3. Jesuit will once again head to the north shore on Wednesday, December 21, to play the Mandeville Skippers in a non-district match. Kickoff is 6 p.m. with the junior varsity teams preceding the varsity at 4:30 p.m. The Jays will then be off for the holidays — except for some practice days — until Tuesday, January 3, 2017, when district play begins. Jesuit will play John Ehret at John Ryan Stadium with kickoff at 5 p.m.

Read More…

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The New Orleans Advocate: St. Paul’s blanks Brother Martin 1-0 to claim St. Paul’s Soccer Holiday Invitational