This post was written by Hatchet staff writer Mark Eisenhauer.
Saint Peter’s crushed GW men’s soccer Saturday in a nightmarish 4-0 loss for the Colonials, their second consecutive shutout and third-straight loss.
The Colonials (3-4) struggled to find a rhythm offensively, while Saint Peter’s (2-6) capitalized on poor decisions by junior goalkeeper Jean-Pierre van der Merwe to cruise to a four-goal victory.
“[van der Merwe] had his worst game of the season, and he’d be the first to admit it,” head coach Craig Jones said. “But you also have to look at how the ball got there originally. We probably made four mistakes before that.”
GW dominated the first 20 minutes of the game, keeping the ball on Saint Peter’s half of the field for long stretches.
The Colonials’ momentum was snapped in the 25th minute, after a Saint Peter’s forward got free with the ball. As he neared the box, van der Merwe came off his line for a tackle, but missed most of the ball and collided instead with the forward, resulting in a penalty kick. The Peacocks easily put away the free kick to take the 1-0 lead.
Only eight minutes later, a similar play unfolded. But when van der Merwe came off the line this time, the tackle deflected behind the keeper to a Saint Peter’s player who extended the Peacocks lead to 2-0.
Despite taking a total of 13 shots in the game, the early goals seemed to sap the life from the GW offense led by starting junior forwards Philip McQuitty and Jonny Forrest.
“We were getting into good spots but we could never score from them,” Jones said. “Then we give away a penalty, and I don’t know what really happened. We just fell apart to be honest.”
In the 40th minute, a hard cross into the Colonial’s zone hit the errant hand of freshman defender Ismail Lapp-Kamara. The resulting penalty kick ended with Saint Peter’s third unanswered goal.
The Peacock’s sealed Saturday’s victory on an early second-half goal off of a free kick from the left wing that curled into the top right corner of the net. In the 50th minute, junior Jack Lopez replaced Van der Merwe, who made only two saves on the day.
With a hard offensive push to avoid a shutout, GW won a penalty kick in the closing minutes of the game. Junior Oliver De Thier’s penalty was saved by Saint Peter’s keeper David Giddings, who would end the day with six saves.
Last season, the Colonials often played down to the level of opponents with weaker records. The Peacocks came into this weekend’s game with a 1-6 record, but senior co-captain Matthew Scott said he was reminded Saturday that Saint Peter’s defeated GW last season 2-1 on the road.
“They were a good team that beat us last year as well,” Scott said. “I don’t think it had anything to do with the opposition. We caused our own problems today, and I think everyone on the team is aware of that.”
The Colonials look to end their three-game skid Tuesday when they take on Longwood in Farmville, Va.
Jones said much of the team’s success moving forward will start with his goalkeeper.
“I hope mentally [van der Merwe] can turn it around for Tuesday,” Jones said. “For us now, it’s mentally can we get out of this, get our heads back up and hopefully get a win.”
