St. Mary's City, Md. – The hopes of a playoff berth for the St. Mary's College of Maryland men's soccer team were dashed Monday afternoon as No. 17 Salisbury University posted a 3-0 victory over the Seahawks in Capital Athletic Conference action.
The loss drops St. Mary's (7-9, 3-5 CAC) to seventh in the league standings and out of the CAC championship tournament while Salisbury (11-2-3, 6-1-0 CAC) claims the conference regular-season title.
A strong defensive front by the Seahawks held Salisbury's conference-leading offense scoreless in the first half as the Sea Gulls fired off 10 shots and connected on five corner kicks.
Following the scoreless first half, St. Mary's continued its solid defense but the Sea Gulls finally broke through in the 54th minute as sophomore forward Trevor Sharpe (Cherry Hill, N.J./Cherry Hill West) collected a cross from the right side and shot into an empty net.
Salisbury struck again at 68:52 behind a Jimmy Mundy (Ellicott City, Md./Centennial) goal and then junior midfielder Pat Callahan (Clarks Summit, Pa./Abington Heights) sealed the win with his first tally of the season at 70:43.
The Seahawks registered 12 shots in the game and were led by midfielders Brian Payne (Catonsville, Md./Calvert Hall) and Evan Camm (Severna Park, Md./Broadneck) with three shots each.
Salisbury doubled up on shots (24-12) and corner kicks (8-4) over the Seahawks. St. Mary's sophomore goalkeeper Austin Brown (Lutherville, Md./St. Paul's) finished the game with seven stops.
The Seahawks will wrap up the 2011 campaign on Wednesday, October 26 as St. Mary's travels to Washington, D.C. to take on Catholic University of America (12-3), who is regionally ranked eighth in the Mid-Atlantic region, at 4:00 pm in the season finale.
