The men’s soccer team (3-3-1 Patriot League, 8-5-3 overall) had a triumphant victory in its homecoming game over Loyola Maryland University (3-3-1 Patriot League, 4-7-3 overall), winning 1-0 to continue its late playoff push.
The tight, physical game mirrored the Leopards’ victory over the Greyhounds in the Patriot League semifinals last season, in which they scored two overtime goals to advance to the Patriot League final.
With the win, the Maroon and White snuck into the top six teams in the league, but with five of the ten teams deadlocked at 3-3-1, a playoff berth is far from guaranteed.
“It’s that point in the season where you got to just bear down and treat every game like a playoff game, and that was kind of the mentality today,” senior midfielder Carter Houlihan said.
The Senior Day action started early when the Loyola goalkeeper saved a penalty kick from Houlihan in the seventh minute.
“Everyone was locked in, everyone was switched on,” Houlihan continued, noting that the team had to concentrate on the game amidst all the celebrations taking place between Senior Day and Homecoming.
Later in the half, senior forward Andrey McIntyre scored the first and only goal of the game, earning Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts. In the 31st minute, McIntyre received a pass from sophomore midfielder Beaux Lizewski and banged it in the bottom right of the goal to take the 1-0 lead.
“I just saw Beaux on the ball,” McIntyre said. “He’s very creative. All the credits to Beaux, and I just screamed his name, ‘Beaux!’ He played the ball, picked my head up, took a touch, saw where the goalie was and just placed the ball on the far corner.”
The Greyhounds came out of halftime looking to even up the score, putting up five second-half shots to the Leopards’ two. While two of Loyola’s shots were on goal, both were saved by senior goalkeeper Griffin Huff.
“Loyola is a pretty good team,” McIntyre said. “We respect the opponent, and they came out better than us in the second half.”
“But then again, it’s just to show the mentality of this team, where we can manage any situation and just dig deep and find the other gear,” he continued.
In the 72nd minute, sophomore forward Roy Biegon collided with the Loyola goalkeeper, forcing him to the sidelines for the remainder of the game. Along with senior forward Lawrence Aydlett, Biegon has been in and out of the starting lineup due to injury this season, but McIntyre said the team’s “next man up” mentality allowed the front line to transition in their absence.
“We still have to trust the guys coming up next,” McIntyre said.
Before the start of the game, the team’s seven seniors were honored. During halftime, the team also honored recently deceased program alumnus Matthew L. Marinelli ’86 and recognized the 50th anniversary of the 1974 men’s soccer season.
Houlihan said his family, girlfriend and neighbors were all in attendance to celebrate.
“It just shows you that there’s so much more to this program than just yourself,” he said.
With the team entering its final week of regular season play, the Leopards are looking to finish strong and earn a postseason spot.
“Before this game, we went in with the mentality that it was win or die and I think that’s a good mentality to go in,” Houlihan said.
The Maroon and White finish their season this week with a pair of Patriot League matchups against first-place Bucknell University (4-1-2 Patriot League, 6-6-3 overall) on Friday at 7 p.m. and a home game against rival Lehigh University (3-3-1 Patriot League, 8-5-3 overall) on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Grace Sanborn ’25 contributed reporting.