STANDISH, ME – For the Saint Joseph's Men's Soccer team, the 2010 season will be remembered as a campaign filled with peaks and valleys. The experience gained as the season progressed by the young SJC side, which featured 14 freshmen and sophomores, will certainly pay dividends in the near future.
St. Joe's went 6-11-2 overall and 3-5-1 in GNAC play last fall under second-year Head Coach Steve Babineau. The Monks' schedule proved to be one of the toughest in recent memory, as four opponents went on to gain NCAA DIII Tournament bids and another collected an ECAC berth.
The Monks earned a spot in the conference tourney for the fourth time in as many years as a league member and, as the #7 seed, fell to second-seeded Albertus Magnus College, 2-0, in the opening round. The Falcons went on to play in the GNAC Championship and collected the #5 seed in the ECAC Tournament.
The Monks entered the year as a team filled with talented athletes and seemed prepared to defend the 2009 Great Northeast Athletic Conference crown. St. Joe's held a 4-2 record on September 15th after topping USM, but went just 2-9-2 the rest of the way and dropped six straight to close out the year. Injuries to key players began to pile up – only six team members played in all 19 games – and the team rarely played at full strength, or so it seemed, for the majority of the season.
Despite losing six starters, including 2009 GNAC Defensive Player of the Year and First Team All-GNAC keeper Will Pike and all-time leading scorer Doug MacCallum '10, from the 2009 GNAC Championship side, Coach Babineau and his staff began the year with an optimistic outlook.
The season began on a bright note with a 3-0 victory over Fitchburg State in the 2010 Xara Classic Tournament, which was hosted by Keene State College. Monks' netminder Nick Campasano '12 (Goffstown, NH) made five saves in his first NCAA start in goal and Paul Robins '11 (Cornwall, England) registered a pair of assists in the triumph.
The Monks suffered a 1-0 setback the following day to an eventual NCAA Tournament participant – Kean University. Campasano recorded three saves, but a deflected kick in the box snuck past him in the 78th minute meaning the Royal Blue would return to Standish with a 1-1 record.
Campasano made five stops to record his second goose-egg effort of the year and the Monks took advantage of a Worcester State own-goal to op the Lancers, 1-0, on September 9th. Saint Joseph's went on to defeat GNAC foe Emerson College, 3-1, two days later to improve to 3-1 on the young season. Robins dealt two assists and Jack LaFreniere '13 (Alton, NH) notched a goal and a helper in the two-goal win.
After a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Husson on September 12th, St. Joe's made the short trek to Southern Maine for the annual in-state rivalry match. The Monks notched three goals early in the second half to notch a 4-1 win over the Huskies and Greg Jentgen '14 (Columbus, OH) recorded the game-clincher in the 61st minute.
The USM victory would have to tide the team over for over two weeks as the Monks hit a bit of a rough patch with a 0-2-2 record in the following four matches. St. Joe's lost to Lasell and eventual NCAA tourney participant Amherst played to stalemates with Maine-Farmington and Emmanuel before finally getting back in the win column with a 6-1 shellacking of Rivier College on October 2nd.
Jesse West '12 (Sheldon, VT) scored two goals and LaFreniere registered two assists in the Rivier match.
A trip to Bowdoin College, which advanced all the way to the NCAA DIII Tournament Final Four in 2010, was next on the docket for the Monks. Campasano made 10 stops for St. Joe's, but six different Bowdoin players found the back of the net as the Royal Blue suffered a 6-0 defeat to the powerhouse Polar Bears.
Saint Joseph's earned a hard-fought 1-0 win over Johnson & Wales on October 9th to improve to 6-5-2 overall and 3-1-1 in conference play. Teddy Palmer '13 (Scarborough, ME) netted a marker in the 61st minute and Campasano made five saves to help propel the Monks to victory.
Unfortunately for the Royal Blue, the victory over the Wildcats turned out to be the last of the 2010 campaign. It all started with a gut-wrenching loss at Mount Ida on October 11th. St. Joe's, leading 3-1 after the first half against the Mustangs, fell flat in the second stanza and allowed Mount Ida to tie the game and eventually steal the 4-3 victory in overtime.
The loss started a string of six consecutive setbacks, a streak that played out for the remainder of the 2010 campaign. After scoring three goals in the loss to Mount Ida, St. Joe's netted just one goal in the final five games. In all, the last six games of the year were lost by a combined total of nine goals.
The scoring drought wasn't for a lack of effort, as the Royal Blue managed to register double-digit shot totals in all six losses, including 15 in a 2-0 GNAC Tournament Quarterfinal loss to Albertus Magnus College on October 30th.
Three players –Robins, Joe Happnie '11 (Rockland, MA), and LaFreniere– earned All-GNAC honors following the completion of the regular season. Robins, a two-time Second Team honoree, collected First Team honors after leading the Monks in goals (4), assists (5), and points (13) as a senior tri-captain.
The end of the 2010 campaign signaled the end of collegiate soccer for the program's five seniors: Robins, Happnie, Eamonn Harrigan (Caribou, ME), Brandon Noltkamper (Bath, ME) and Banak Thiwat (Cape Elizabeth, ME). The quintet helped the Monks post a 37-37-9 record over the past four seasons and will certainly be missed, on and off the pitch, in the coming seasons.
