Seahawks Hang Tough with Final Italian Opponent

Castelfiorentino, Italy – Calcio Castelfiorentino, the final opponent for the St. Mary's College of Maryland men's soccer team, turned out to be the Seahawks' strongest foe during their eight-day, three-match tour of Italy.  St. Mary's will head back to the States on Friday with a 2-1 record after Calcio Castelfiorentino edged the Seahawks, 1-0.

St. Mary's faced Calcio Castelfiorentino's starting 11 for the majority of the contest as Calcio is also preparing for the upcoming season.  It took a while for the Seahawks to settle down and adjust to Calcio's intensity and pace.  Calcio capitalized with a goal in the 15th minute with a shot to the near post.

However, strong defensive efforts by seniors Zack Brooks (Mechanicsville, Md./Chopticon), Amir Reda (Odenton, Md./DeMatha) and Kevin Seeger (Gaithersburg, Md./Northwest) and junior Taylor Lewis (Upper Marlboro, Md./Leonardtown) as well as the rest of the Seahawks throughout the match held Calcio to just one goal.

Senior goalkeeper Paul Spranklin (Columbia, Md./Oakland Mills) played his role well as Spranklin made a tremendous diving save to prevent a deflected free kick from the finding the back of the net and keep it a 1-0 match.

The Seahawks had two good scoring chances in the second half.  The first came when senior Keith Hines (Hollywood, Md./Leonardtown) drove into the box but Calcio's 6-5 goalie denied Hines.  Towards the end of the match, junior Brian Payne (Baltimore, Md./Calvert Hall) played a through ball to send junior Chris Quamina (Glen Burnie, Md./Mount Saint Joseph) into the box but the shot sailed just over the crossbar as the defender was able to recover and apply pressure.

Senior Nick Ibello (Cockeysville, Md./Calvert Hall) finished the tour with two goals to pace the team while Payne, juniors Drew Gainey (Mechanicsville, Md./Chopticon) and Ted Scharfenberg (Holbrook, N.Y./St. John the Baptist) and sophomore Ryan Plaisance (Gaithersburg, Md./Gaithersburg) each tallied a goal and an assist.  As a team, the Seahawks scored eight goals while allowing five.

St. Mary's will wrap up its eight-day Italian tour with two days in Rome before returning to Maryland this Friday.  In between matches, the team has enjoyed sightseeing in Chioggia, Florence, Montecatini Terme, Pisa, Venice and now Rome.

The Seahawks will commence preseason on August 19 before kicking off the 2010 campaign on September 1 at Neumann College with a non-conference match at 6:30 pm.