St. Paul’s Holiday Tournament: Jesuit’s Sleepy Play and “Own Goal” Hands Brother Martin a 1-0 Win

Jesuit goalie Shane Lanson dives to make this great save in the first half of Saturday’s match against Brother Martin.

Into the Lens: View the Jesuit – Brother Martin Photo Gallery

In an early pre-season match-up between a pair of soccer titans Saturday afternoon (December 17) at St. Paul’s Holiday Tournament, the Blue Jays and the Crusaders battled to an “almost” scoreless tie.

Bodies strewn about, Hunt Navar (10) and Ashton Perkins (18) try to find Brother Martin’s goal late in the game.

Except for Jesuit’s “own goal” in the first half, which resulted from a miscommunication between junior goalie Shane Lanson and one of his fullbacks that allowed the ball to barely dribble into the net. The mistake — which sapped the energy and drive from the Blue Jays on a balmy afternoon — was an unfortunate bit of dumb luck that allowed the Crusaders to escape from Hunter Field in Covington with a 1-0 win.

For their final game of the tournament, the Jays (5-3-3) will play the Irish of Grace King on Monday, December 19, at 4:30 p.m. The winner will be awarded the third place trophy. Brother Martin will meet St. Paul’s for the championship game.

It was a close match between the Jays and the Crusaders, and Jesuit certainly had enough chances to score a few goals. But the bottom line was that the Jays just did not play very well.

What made the match so close, said senior central defender Christian Hebert, was that the Jays did not finish their chances.

After a lackluster game against crosstown rival Brother Martin, the Blue Jays listen to an earful from their coaches.

“We had so many chances in this game and that one mistake cost us, but I mean we dominated possession,” said a frustrated Hebert. “I felt we had the ball on their half enough, but we just couldn’t finish our chances. And that one error cost us.”

Jesuit head coach Hubie Collins agreed that neither team carved out many shots.

“I think Shane had to make one save down to his near post and that was really it,” he said. “Their goalkeeper had to make a few little easy saves but nothing too dangerous. It was a kind of a fairly even game. I thought we were a little off the pace. (Friday) night’s game (against St. Amant) was so intense that we found Brother Martin was a little half-step quicker than us both on the field and maybe even in their thought process, so we’re going to have to correct that next time we play.”

Jesuit will play Brother Martin twice more this season, but only one match will count as a district game.. The first match, on January 19 at John Ryan Stadium, is a non-district game by agreement of all the coaches. The game that counts as a district match will be played January 28 at Brother Martin.

Read More… 

The New Orleans Advocate: Brother Martin tops Jesuit on own goal in St. Paul’s tournament

Nola.com: Own goal gives Crusaders the victory in St. Paul’s Holiday Soccer Invitational