KINGS POINT, N.Y. (Sept. 7, 2023) – The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy men's soccer team kicked off the home portion of the 2023 schedule with a non-conference matchup versus archrival Coast Guard on Thursday night. Having lost their last five meetings with the Bears, the defending Skyline Conference Champions fought hard for 90 minutes to gut out a 1-1 draw. The tie was the club's first against the Bears since a 0-0 draw in 2016. As a result, both teams left Bartoszek Field with 0-2-1 records.
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The match turned out to be what many expected – a tightly contested defensive contest. Every inch of the pitch was fought for throughout the night. On the night USMMA honored the 142 and the Mariners debuted their beautiful new 142 kits, the home squad played its best game of the young season in front of a raucous crowd in Kings Point.
Coast Guard did what every good road team does – take the crowd out of the game early. The Bears outshot the Mariners 9-7 in the opening 45 minutes and broke the ice in the process. Charles Fish put the visitors up 1-0 with his first goal of the season at the 24:29 mark of the first half on a penalty kick tally.
Still leading 1-0 as the second half began, the Bears kept the pedal to the metal looking for the insurance goal. Just over five minutes into the half, senior
Ashton Carey (Pasadena, Md.) made a tremendous diving save to his right on Charles Fish's younger brother Jake to keep Kings Point within one.
Carey had fired up the crowd and evidently his teammates with his full extension save. Merchant Marine followed Carey's heroics with sustained pressure in the Bears' end but could not send much towards the net of Coast Guard keeper Wolfgang Pfleghar. Pfleghar was forced to make only one save in the first 70 minutes, albeit a spectacular point-break diving stop off a shot from junior
Gio Tallini (Westbury, N.Y.) in the first half.
With the offense in rhythm, the Mariners generated their second shot on goal of the night…and it went in. Sophomore
John Germain (Cornwall, N.Y.) drew a foul to earn a penalty kick. In front of a nervously silent crowd, Germain ripped the tying goal into the twine to send Bartoszek Field into a frenzy with 18:18 to go.
As the clock wound down with both team looking for their first win of the year, Carey aggressively came out of his net. Jude Sargent had a wide open net for the Bears, or so he thought, with 2:46 remaining. With his keeper out of position, sophomore
Wes Ferry (Newport N.C.) made a highlight reel sliding save to his right to keep the game tied. Sargent fell to the turf in disbelief while the Kings Point crowd rose to their feet in appreciation of Ferry's game-saving sliding block.
Neither team came close to cracking the tie as the clock hit triple zeroes. A hard-fought tie for
Drew McCarthy's Mariners and a tough tie to sallow for the Bears.
The Mariners will look to take the momentum from the tie on a two-game road trip in upstate N.Y. Merchant Marine will spend the weekend in Oneonta when they play the Oneonta Red Dragons on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. and the Hartwick Hawks on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. Live stats and a live video feed of the both games will be available with links on
the USMMA Men's Soccer Schedule Page.
