Roughly 20 minutes after watching their female classmates dominate the second half of the Southern Maryland Athletic Conference girls soccer championship game at Calvert High School, the Leonardtown High boys soccer team emerged from a scoreless first half to upend Northern High 2-0 on Saturday.
Leonardtown arrived this fall as the defending 4A boys soccer state champions and the Raiders have been the head of the class throughout the fall. Last Saturday afternoon at Calvert, Leonardtown overcame a slow start and scoreless deadlock through the first 40 minutes to upend Northern as Ryan Pinkel and Lincoln Bauer each scored one goal in the second half.
“Some games you win being gritty and other games you win playing pretty,” Leonardtown boys soccer coach Luke Kukolios said. “Today was one of those games when we had to be gritty. I thought the boys battled from start to finish. That first goal from Ryan really took some of the pressure off. But now it’s on to our ultimate goal of seeking to defend our 4A state title.”
Throughout a scoreless first half in which both teams had legitimate scoring chances, Leonardtown was unable to solve the riddle that Northern goalie David Martin presented. But during the middle stages of the second half, the Raiders finally broke the scoreless deadlock when Pinkel took a center pass from Caleb Phillips and drilled a low shot past Martin into the left corner of the net for a 1-0 lead.
“Caleb sent a great lead pass to me and I was able to turn and get a clear look,” Pinkel said. “I turned and hit it pretty clean and it just got past [Martin]. We had to keep up the intensity the rest of the second half and Lincoln came through with another goal.”
Bauer, the defending SMAC boys soccer player of the year, gave the Raiders a 2-0 advantage with just under three minutes remaining when he sent a free kick from the left side past Martin and around the left post. With time winding down, Bauer admitted he was just looking to take a clean shot that would make Martin work for the save and elapse more time.
“Really, I was just thinking about taking a good shot and using more time,” Bauer said. “We were already up 1-0, so it wasn’t like we needed another goal. But I was aiming left post and I guess he was leaning the other way and it got around the left post.”
Northern fourth-year coach Ben Barley lamented Saturday’s setback briefly, but reminded his players before they headed to the team bus that their ultimate goal, much like Leonardtown, is on the task of earning the region and state titles.
“It was two really good halves of soccer for us,” Barley said. “Leonardtown’s a great team and they showed it again today. But our guys played well and now we have to regroup and focus on the region and getting to states. Great Mills knocked us off in the region final last year, so maybe we will get a chance to redeem ourselves.”
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