ST. MARY'S CITY, MD – Junior
Jonathan Cui scored twice to lead the Johns Hopkins men's soccer team to a 3-1 win at St. Mary's Wednesday night in non-conference action. The Blue Jays improve to 3-1-2 while the Seahawks fall to 3-2-0.
The Blue Jays needed just 91 seconds to get on the scoreboard as Cui scored the first of his career-best two goals. Graduate student
Max Edelstein chipped a perfect ball over the defense to Cui, six yards out. He took one touch around his defender and calming buried the game's opening goal.
Less than nine minutes later, Cui had his second goal of the game – what turned out to be the game-winner. It all started with an interception on the defensive end by senior
Logan Falzarano. The Blue Jays quickly worked the ball up the field to Edelstein, who led graduate student
Ben Goodman with a pass into the box. Goodman drew out SMC goalie Matthew Kopsidas before centering a pass to Cui, who one-timed a shot into the open net.
St. Mary's cut the deficit in half in the 36
th minute capitalizing on a corner. Jack Nelson volleyed the ball from the top of the box, it deflected off a defender and into the goal to make it 2-1. Hopkins pushed its lead back to two in the 77
th minute with a strike from Edelstein. A give-and-go between sophomore
Jackson Shapiro and
Will Sangpachatanaruk, ended with Shapiro crossing the ball from the endline into the middle of the box, where Edelstein buried it.
Senior
Drew Valsamedis notched four saves to earn the win, while Kopsidas finished with two in the loss. St. Mary's outshot Hopkins, 14-9, while the Blue Jays had an 8-6 edge in corners. The Blue Jay defense held the Seahawks to just the one goal, three goals below their season average.
Hopkins returns to action on Saturday, September 16 as the Blue Jays open Centennial Conference play against Muhlenberg. The game is slated for a 1:00 pm start at Homewood Field.
Notes: Hopkins improves to 27-0-0 all-time against St. Mary's, including 8-0-0 under head coach
Craig Appleby • Cui's goal is the fastest to open a game (1:31) since Achim Younker scored just 27 seconds into the game versus Messiah on October 1, 2018.