ATCHISON, Kan. -- In a physical match that featured a combined 27 shot attempts from both teams, Benedictine (Kan.) used a goal in the 18th minute to take a difficult 1-0 decision from the John Brown men's soccer team (2-3-1) on Saturday (Sept. 12) at the BC Soccer Complex.
Sophomore keeper Adam Holt's shutout streak came to a close in the 18th minute, finishing at 257:07 of continuous time. Despite the streak coming to an end, Holt picked up six saves in the loss and drops his record to 2-3-1 on the season.
The match was physical from the beginning and was highlighted by 34 fouls and six yellow cards. Beyond the physicality, the Golden Eagles had to adjust to a turf. At three different points in the night, freshman Santiago Venegas, freshman Conner Haney and sophomore Douglas Oliveira had to be helped off the field due to collisions and turf issues.
Senior Guilherme Barbosa led all JBU players with five shots, one on goal, while Venegas and senior Marco Cardona each added a pair of attempts.
"It was really not a bad performance by the boys tonight," head coach Scott Marksberry admitted. "The injuries caught up with us early in the game, but I thought a lot of our boys stepped in and delivered very solid shifts for the team. We were scrambling for a few minutes from losing Douglas and Benedictine took advantage, but I did not feel that we were threatened much beyond that. The story for us, again, was the we did not bury the chances we had. A little more composure in front of the goal, and tonight is a very different game."
Benedictine (4-1-0) scored the match's lone goal at the 17:08 mark when Ryan Dickerson began a give-and-go play with Adam James outside the Golden Eagle box. James took a pass, then flicked forward through the John Brown back line a pass to Dickerson, who collected it and fired from the top of the 18 on the right side. The low, hard shot beat Holt to the far left post, handing the Ravens a 1-0 advantage it would not relinquish.
The Golden Eagles controlled much of the play in the second half and had three prime opportunities to score. In the 82nd minute, senior Logan Hellinghausen dropped a perfect pass at the top of the 18 for Barbosa, who rifled a shot from the right side just wide of the left post, beating BC keeper Caleb Jenkins. Later with 3:09 left on the clock, a long throw in from freshman Ashby Clark nearly became the equalizer as the toss landed in the Raven box and pinballed around before a defensive clear.
Finally, as time was expiring, freshman Ryan Williams lofted a free kick from nearly midfield into the box, but Jenkins came up with the bounding save, narrowly beating out the head of senior Zeke Zumbro, who was vying for the last-second equalizer.
Jenkins made four saves in the shutout and runs his record to 4-1-0 on the season.
John Brown will return to action on Saturday (Sept. 19) when it travels to Batesville, Ark., to take on Lyon (5-0-0) in a 3 p.m. matinee affair.
