Saints edge by Blue Jays
The last time they played Bismarck St. Mary’s, the Saints’ junior forward Ben Weisbeck scored a hat trick and St. Mary’s rolled 6-0 on their home turf.By: By Michael Savaloja, The Jamestown Sun, The Jamestown Sun
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The last time they played Bismarck St. Mary’s, the Saints’ junior forward Ben Weisbeck scored a hat trick and St. Mary’s rolled 6-0 on their home turf.
But that was back on Sept. 6, and since that time the Blue Jay boys soccer team has been steadily making improvement.
It was round No. 2 for the Jays and the Saints at Jamestown’s Rotary Field on Thursday night. Weisbeck did score his fourth goal of the season against the Jays, but Jamestown’s defense, and senior goalkeeper Hunter Munson, hung tough in a hard-fought 2-0 loss to the Saints.
“I was definitely quite a bit more pleased. We tried to rest some guys a little bit in the second half, so we didn’t die towards the last 15-20 minutes,” JHS coach Colin Rose said. “But at the same time it’s pretty frustrating, just because we had some opportunities but we couldn’t get one more touch or a shot to go in.”
The Saints scored once in each half, with Weisbeck finding the back of the net first with just over 34 minutes to play in the first half. Weisbeck was able to lose the defense by the right corner of Jamestown’s net and received a throw in from teammate Scott Nagel.
Weisbeck was then one-on-one with Munson, and at point-blank-range he banged it home to make things 1-0 Saints.
But that was really the only major hiccup by the Blue Jays all evening. Jamestown held St. Mary’s scoreless the rest of the half, and the Saints’ goal in the second half — scored by senior midfielder Andrew Kopp — came after a flurry of activity in front of Munson in the net with just over 30 minutes left to play.
Munson posted 10 saves in the match. He notched 19 saves in Jamestown’s 6-0 loss to the Saints back in early September.
“The defense definitely held (St. Mary’s) up the field so they couldn’t play in front of the box,” Rose said. “They had to play it long, and Hunter collected everything that went into the box that they didn’t dribble in. He was definitely on his game tonight.”
Jamestown (2-10, 2-6 West Region) is hoping they can bring the same play they executed on Thursday to its remaining matches. The Jays head to Minot on Saturday to face the Magicians, before taking on Bismarck Century at the Bowl on Monday.
The WDA tournament is scheduled for next Friday in Mandan.
“I think (we’ll play) either St. Mary’s or it’s going to be Minot (at the WDA), and after we played this well against St. Mary’s I’m hoping it’s them,” Rose said. “We certainly didn’t help our cause by losing tonight, but (Thursday night’s play) is definitely a good feeling at the end of the season, going into the WDA next weekend.”
Bismarck St. Mary’s 2, Jamestown 0
St. Mary’s 1 1 — 2
Jamestown 0 0 — 0
Scoring
First half
1, BSM, Ben Weisbeck (unassisted), 5:40.
Second half
2, BSM, Andrew Kopp (unassisted), 49:56.
Goalkeeper saves: BSM, Tom Gilchrist 1; JHS, Hunter Munson 10.
Records: Bismarck St. Mary’s 8-5-2, 6-2 West Region; Jamestown 2-10, 2-6 West Region.
Sun sports writer Michael Savaloja can be reached at (701) 952-8461 or by email at msavaloja@jamestownsun.com
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