COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Threatening to post its first victory over Johns Hopkins in over two decades, the Ursinus College men's soccer team saw its hopes dashed when the visitors scored twice in a span of seven minutes, the first on a controversial penalty kick just 51 seconds after the Bears had taken the lead, to escape Patterson Field with a 2-1 Centennial Conference result.
Ursinus (4-7, 0-5) has not defeated the Blue Jays (9-2-2, 3-2) since 1994, but the home side drew first blood exactly 69 minutes into the contest, when senior Ryan Molyneaux buried a penalty kick after a teammate was pushed in the box.
Unfortunately, the Bears' elation turned to bitter disappointment less than a minute later. A Blue Jay was upended on the edge of the box after making a run, and the referee awarded a heavily disputed penalty kick – and handed out two yellow cards to Ursinus players and another to the bench. When the dust settled several minutes later, Sammy Ramadane slotted home into the lower left corner of the net, snatching a quick equalizer.
Johns Hopkins went ahead for good on a beautiful sequence in the 77th minute, when Ramadane's pass on a fast break was chipped over Ursinus senior goalkeeper Vince Maiorino's head by Victor Osio. The Bears were only able to get off one more shot before the end of regulation.
The Blue Jays took all five corner kicks in the game and registered 18 shots to the Bears' 10. Johns Hopkins, which has qualified for the CC playoffs every year since its inception in 2001, got four shots from Osio and three from Ramadane. Bryan See, the reigning CC Defensive Player of the Week, made one save.
Maiorino finished with seven saves to keep Ursinus in the game. Sophomore Ben Amaral paced the offense with three shots, and seven other players notched one.
Ryan Molyneaux's goal was his second career penalty-kick marker.
The men's soccer team will seek its first CC victory of the season at Washington College on Saturday, October 15.
