By Catholic Review Staff
For the second time in five days, the Archbishop Curley soccer team defended its home field in strong fashion Oct. 19, when the Friars recorded a 3-1 victory over rival Calvert Hall.
The Cardinals were the No. 1 team in The Sun rankings. Mount St. Joseph held the same position Oct. 15, when it lost in overtime at Curley, 2-1.
Seniors Dylan Poetzel, Dylan Holy and Brenden Hollingsworth scored goals that staked coach Barry Stitz’s Curley team to an early 3-0 lead on Calvert Hall, which had defeated the Friars 2-1 in the Bernie Reif Cup last month.
“This is a huge win for us,” Holy said. “We control our own destiny.”
Archbishop Curley’s defensive wall succeeds in blocking a direct kick from Calvert Hall’s James Rosa during a late afternoon match at Archbishop Curley High School in Baltimore Oct. 19. The second-ranked Curley Friars were victorious over the top-ranked Calvert Hall Cardinals 3-1. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)
Curley improved to 14-3-2 overall, 9-2-1 in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference, as it repeats the kind of late-season surge that took the Friars to the 2015 conference championship game, where they lost 2-1 to McDonogh.
Curley still has four conference games remaining, including two against surging Gilman.
Calvert Hall, which got a goal from Ben Alexander in the closing minutes, dropped to 12-3-2 overall, 10-3-1 in the A Conference. In another A Conference game Oct. 19, Mount St. Joseph tied Gilman 1-1, leaving the Gaels at 10-2-2 overall, 9-2-2 in the conference.
The top two teams in the conference receive first-round byes in the playoffs, and then host semifinal games Nov. 3. The A Conference championship game will be played Nov. 6, at the Essex campus of the Community College of Baltimore County.
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