Mount Saint Joseph continues hot start with win over Catonsville in season opener for Comets

When Catonsville hosted private school rival Mount Saint Joseph in the rain on March 23rd both coaches had concerns and they were totally opposite.

Catonsville coach K.R. Schultz was leading the Comets in their season opener and Tyler Reid’s Gaels (5-1) were playing their third game in five days and fifth in nine days.

While both teams had obstacles in the contest, the game was highly-competitive and the Gaels broke a tie with two goals in the final five minutes for a 9-7 victory.

Ryan Currie broke the deadlock and the Gaels added an extra-man goal to ice the game. Currie finished with a game-high three goals.

Joey Fantinato, Ryan Hudson, Reed Herbert, Tyler Superczynski and Owen Craney scored the other goals for the Gaels.

After a slow start the St. Joe defense clamped down in the final quarter.

“I give our defense a lot of credit because once we started pressing out we were kind of disturbing their offense a little bit and our defensive unit did a good job once we put the ball on the ground which gave our offense more opportunities at the offensive end and we were able to capitalize and go ahead and get the lead and eventually get the win,” Reid said.

“Aidan Chairs was huge in the defense with multiple caused turnovers,” Reid said.

The Gaels were coming off a 9-7 victory over St. Thomas Aquinas the night before at Stevenson University and started slowly against the Comets, who took a 3-1 early lead.

“We like to have all our games a little chaotic at Catonsville,” Schultz said. “Especially with the rain and stuff we were able to be a little hectic early in the game.”

The rain was heavy through the first half and tapered off in the second, but it was even worse in the early game when the Catonsville JV defeated the St. Joe fresh-soph team, 9-3.

“That was an absolute monsoon,” said Schultz, who like Reid, didn’t blame to rain for some inconsistent play.

“Credit to Mount St. Joe, they made some good halftime adjustments and I had a couple timeouts out there that I should have used,” Schultz said. “First game of the season for the coaches, I would have had a decision or two back if i could and it might have been a different turnout, but they made some plays at the end of the game.”

The Comets got two goals from Dylan Stevenson and one each from Isaak Powell, JP Dement, Ben Hipszer, Sammy Azbill and Will Roberson.

Azbill and Roberson are both long-stick defenders.

They are part of a veteran defense that includes senior John Gorski, who is in his fourth varsity season along with Roberson.

Gorski will play next season at York College and Roberson will play at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).

“It was pretty sloppy on our side in that we had a lot of turnovers,” Reid said. “Their defensemen did a good job disturbing passing lanes, they’ve got some really talented poles on their team that made it a little tougher for our offense early on in that game.”

The Comets also got 12 saves from junior goalie Rory Gibbons.

‘I thought Rory played excellent,” said Schultz, whose 2-1 squad bounced back on Wednesday with victories over North Harford, 11-4 and River Hill, 11-2, at the River Hill Invitational.

Despite the opening loss, Schultz was happy for his team to get one quality game to start the season.

“Starting out the year with Mount St. Joe was fun,” he said. “It was still a pretty darn big crowd.”

Reid and the Gaels were enjoying a week off without games before resuming their schedule with their first Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association game of the season — hosting Loyola Blakefield Tuesday at 4 p.m.

The only loss of the season for the Gaels came against Westtowne School, Pa. on Tuesday. That loss sandwiched two wins in California and the ones at Stevenson University and Catonsville.

“We flew back and played three games so it’s been a lot of lacrosse for the guys, but I’m really proud of how they kind of handled that challenge of playing across the country and coming back to play three games in a week,” Reid said. “They answered the call and it kind of shows the physical and mental toughness of our team this year .”