St. Paul’s boys soccer poised to run toward their goalkeeper when they heard the whistle.
Time seemingly expired in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association B Conference championship game, but just before, officials awarded Severn with a free kick.
The Crusaders only led 2-1. While their defense had done a pretty good job of corralling the Admirals away from their keeper on the UMBC turf, this split-second play could send them to overtime — or worse, a heartbreaking loss.
Ned Doherty tensed. The Crusaders keeper suffered the anxiety of penalty kicks in the semifinal but had gotten off light here, thanks to his defense forcing all but one of Severn’s shots outside.
“It’s one of the scariest things ever,” Doherty said. “I was just waiting for it to end.”
Severn senior Will Cawlfield kicked the ball into the fray, hoping to give one of his teammates a chance. Instead, St. Paul’s defenders packed in and herded the ball out of range, cementing their second straight title without a scratch on their conference record (11-0, 12-3-2 overall).
“To go undefeated is really difficult. To repeat is really difficult,” Crusaders coach Paul Fisher said. “All the grit, all the work — I’m really proud of them. My assistant coach Gage Rims came in and changed the program, and we love doing it together.”
Though St. Paul’s ultimately needed two goals again to prevail against the Admirals (7-4 conference, 13-5-1 overall), senior Tyler Clary was happy to provide.
The Crusaders pelted Connor Leach repeatedly, and the Severn keeper sponged up each shot. With three minutes left in the first half, Clary locked onto a ball moving around the box.
“I wanted to go up and get the looks in. I connected well and it went in — and I had to go celly with the team,” he said.
For his first goal, Clary sprinted to his fans’ side, spread his arms wide and then pumped his fist like a rockstar. His second goal’s celebration was a little more muted. He didn’t imagine he’d get two chances, he joked.
“He’s goofy,” Fisher said, “but the minute the whistle blows, he’s incredibly competitive and incredibly focused.”
Severn’s seniors have never known a season without competing in the MIAA B championship. Until 2023, they marched through the conference as conquerors.
But in 2023, St. Paul’s netted one more goal than the Admirals on the UMBC pitch, ending Severn’s consecutive title run at two.
“Severn has been the standard. All respect to [coach] Mike McCarthy and what he’s done and what Severn’s done for years,” Fisher said.
St. Paul’s 12 seniors suffered two unforgiving seasons in the A Conference before moving down as juniors. They’d decided then to reset. That was the past, and a new conference for the taking awaited them.
Then, after losing standout scorers like Ale Estrada and JoJo Washington to graduation in the offseason, the defending champions focused on becoming more balanced.
“We experienced winning last year, so the goal was to do it again and be better by fixing all the mistakes we had before and putting in the extra work,” Clary said.
The Crusaders intensified their season by scheduling Washington schools like Georgetown Prep (tie) and Landon (one-goal loss), as well as some A Conference foes. They endured close, one-goal calls with Boys Latin, St. Mary’s and Sts. Peter and Paul, survived a shootout with the Lakers in the semifinal.
They knew Severn wouldn’t swallow a 4-2 loss this fall without wanting vengeance, let alone last year’s championship defeat.
“We trusted the coaches,” Clary said. “They tell us everything we need to know. It’s always a fun battle going out with Severn, so we just make sure we do our job.”
Severn entered Sunday’s game “extremely confident,” coach Mike McCarthy said. The Admirals monopolized possessions in the first half, and even when Clary netted his pair, there was no feeling on the Severn sideline that a win was out of reach.
With 25 minutes left, junior Charlie Keuleman executed the play to perfection as he crossed to Nick Melfi — “scrambled eggs in the box.” It was so craftily struck that it appeared to be — and was even called as — an own goal by St. Paul’s as both teams walked away from the net without a celebration.
“I really thought we had some good momentum after that goal,” McCarthy said. “But they blocked it in and played a slow, defensive game.”
The Admirals avenged one of their three conference losses on the way to the final (AACS) and made their longtime coach’s 200th win as sweet as possible by knocking St. Mary’s off in the semifinals.
The three senior starters, Cawlfield, Melfi and Alex Tarallo, “put the team on their back.”
“They took us to where we wanted to be. Just fell short in the end. At the end of the day, I told our kids there was no failure whatsoever,” McCarthy said. “We knew it was going to be a tight game.”
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