St. Albans soccer padded their first-place lead in the IAC last week with a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Episcopal Tuesday and a 5-0 win at St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes Friday. The Bulldogs hosted Episcopal Tuesday to close out their first run through IAC opponents in the double round robin regular season schedule. The Maroon goalkeeper made several outstanding saves early and then initiated their first goal with a well placed goal kick in the 25^th minute. More timely saves and a shot off a goal post preserved the 1-0 EHS lead at halftime. The Bulldogs tied the game in the 45^th minute on a beautiful string of passes in the box that senior Chris Bates finished to tie the game 1-1. The play started with a Tom Brady corner kick that sailed past the far post. Fellow senior Thomas Bean tracked the ball down and played it back across the goal to Brady, who feathered a pass through traffic to junior Xixi Espinoza. Espinoza’s attempt was blocked but Brady won control of the rebound and found Espinoza again. Without stopping the ball, Espinoza one-touched a perfect ball to Bates at the goal mouth and Bates pushed it past the diving keeper.

 

In the 63^rd minute, with EHS playing a man down due to a red card, junior Jacob Romhilt headed a Maroon goal kick from the STA defensive half back to the Maroon half where an EHS defender headed it into the middle of the field. Tom Brady launched a left-footed ball off the bounce to Espinoza just inside the penalty area. Espinoza won body position on his defender, then spun and placed a perfect left-footed shot into the lower right corner of the goal, barely eluding the sprawling Maroon keeper. The Bulldogs were able to keep Episcopal off the board in the final 17 minutes to push their IAC record to 4-0-1.

 

Friday marked STA’s start of the second half of IAC play with a visit to St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes. The Bulldogs won the teams’ first matchup 3-0 on September 24. With two key players returning to the Saints’ lineup and playing at home under perfect weather conditions on Friday afternoon, the Bulldogs knew the Saints posed a stiff challenge. With 13:43 left in the first half, Chris Bates broke through the stingy Saints defense with a rocket from 20 yards out that found the upper right corner of the goal. Senior Xavier Wigglesworth won a contested ball near the right sideline and moved it to Patrick Brady who found Bates on the far left side. Bates took a few touches to create separation from a defender, cut to the middle and let the shot fly with his right foot. In the 50^th minute senior Thomas Bean jumped to play a Tom Brady corner off his chest then, as he was falling to the ground, struck the ball with his left foot into the far left corner under the diving keeper to give the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead. Patrick Brady broke the game open ten minutes later with a nifty move along the left wing that drew the keeper out, then placed a perfect shot low to the far right corner of the net. Bates and sophomore Parker Leyden assisted on the goal with well-executed headers to get Brady the ball.

 

Leyden scored the fourth goal less than a minute later, finishing an incredible 15-pass string by the Bulldogs. Ultimately, Wigglesworth received a high arcing cross from Bean just off the right post and played the ball to Leyden who was able to connect on a bouncing ball. Bean closed out the scoring in the 77^th minute by finding the ball in a scrum near the top of the penalty area and toeing a shot just under the crossbar.

 

The Bulldogs are now 5-0-1 in the IAC and 9-0-1 overall. They hold a four-point lead in the IAC over second-place Georgetown Prep and are seven points ahead of third-place Landon. The Bulldogs will honor their seniors this Tuesday in the team’s last regular season home game versus Bullis. The senior ceremony will start at 4:00pm with kickoff set for 4:30pm on Steuart Field. STA Plays at Landon Friday at 4:30pm.