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BY VICTOR BRADY

In print | Published November 12, 2009 — Updated November 17, 2009 18:58

As the ball left the right foot of David Sterngold ’12 with just over six minutes remaining in the game, the crowd, gathered at Varsity Field on the campus of Muhlenberg College for the 2009 Centennial Conference playoffs, held its breath. Everyone thought that the shot was headed to the back of the net to tie the game at one.

But the ball struck the crossbar over the head of Johns Hopkins goaltender Ravi Gil, and Johns Hopkins held off Swarthmore by a final of score 1-0 in the semifinals of the Centennial Conference Championship Saturday. The loss snapped a two-game winning streak for the Garnet against the Blue Jays, who with the win improved to 15-4-1 against Swarthmore in the last 20 matchups.

In the loss, the Garnet was only able to put two shots on goal, with a swarming Hopkins defense and the metalwork keeping Swarthmore at bay. “They blocked a lot of shots at the top of the penalty area, they defended very well, and I give them a lot of credit for that,” said coach Eric Wagner, who is in his eighth season as head coach.

Though the game featured the two top scorers in the Centennial Conference, Swarthmore’s Morgan Langley ’11 and Hopkins junior Scott Bukoski, the Hopkins defense kept the Garnet in check, while Swarthmore, for the second time this year, kept Bukoski off the scoreboard. Coach Wagner had a simple explanation.

“Two words. Gage Newman. He was amazing that night. He was fantastic. His timing, his athleticism, his strength, his decision making: outstanding. He was the player of the match as far as I am concerned.”

The Blue Jays would go on to win the Conference Championship, defeating fourth-seeded Dickinson in the finals 2-1, the Red Devils having upset the host Muhlenberg the day before. With the win, the Blue Jays secured an automatic berth in the NCAA Division III men’s soccer tournament.

Even after the loss, the Garnet finished ranked third in the Mid-Atlantic Region and 18th overall in the NSCAA Division III Soccer Poll. When the NCAA released the field for the 2009 Division III tournament last Sunday, the Garnet learned that it would be in its second straight NCAA tournament.

Muhlenberg, who won the regular season Centennial Conference championship with a record of 7-1-1, and Dickinson, who beat Swarthmore head-to-head in penalty kicks on Sept. 26 and made the Centennial Conference finals, were left on the outside looking in.

The Garnet, now with a record of 14-2-2, will open the tournament on Saturday against Merchant Marine, an at-large bid from the Landmark Conference who finished the year at 15-3-0. The match will be played at Clothier Field, as will the opening round match between Hobart (14-3-2) and St. Joseph’s of Long Island (13-8-0). The winners of these two matches will return to Clothier Field on Sunday with a spot in the Sweet 16 on the line.

But Swarthmore enters the NCAA tournament having won only one of its last four matches. After a 1-1 tie on the road at McDaniel and a 0-0 draw in front of the Garnet faithful at Clothier Field, Swarthmore defeated Haverford 4-2 in the regular season finale before Saturday’s loss to Hopkins.

“[We’ve had] a lack of creativity, and a lack of an ability to penetrate defenses, in part because teams have done a really good job adjusting to our strengths, and we haven’t done as good a job in becoming more creative,” said Wagner, whose team was shut out just three times this year, but twice in the final three matches.

“At this time of the year, we are playing much stronger teams, and when you get down to playoff time … teams are fighting tooth and nail, and it’s a lot harder to get results, but we are a little disappointed that we didn’t do quite a bit better than that,” Wagner added.

Morgan Langley, who scored the only goal in the Garnet’s win over Johns Hopkins in the Centennial Conference opener on Sept. 19, also knows that the team has work to do headed into its match against Merchant Marine on Saturday.

“I think we need to step up the offensive play. We have changed our offensive scheme since the beginning of the season and it has caused [us] a lot of problems when it comes to scoring goals,” the junior said.

Though the Garnet led the Centennial Conference in nearly every offensive category this year, including goals scored (44), it has scored just seven times in the last six games.

Langley and midfielder Micah Rose ’12 were named to the 2009 All-Centennial Conference First Team, Brett McLarney ’12 earned Second Team honors and Gage Newman ’11 received an honorable mention.

According to Langley, who received an Honorable Mention last year, “It was a great honor to be recognized and achieve First Team all-conference.” And despite the honor, there was something to be left hoping for. “I think yet again our team did not get the respect we deserve in the conference.  We had the [second-best] record in the conference, yet there are not that many [Swarthmore athletes] on the all-conference teams.”

Among those left off of the All-Conference Teams were Dylan Langley ’10, who ranked eighth in the conference with 1.00 point per game and fifth in the conference with five assists and Roberto Contreras IV ’12, who finished third in the conference with six assists.

Saturday’s action is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. at Clothier Field for the match between Hobart and St. Joseph’s, followed by the showdown between Swarthmore and Merchant Marine at 7:30. The winners will play at 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Having played just two of their final eight games at home, Wagner knows that his team is ready to play in front of the ever-present Garnet fans at Clothier Field once again. “The players are so thrilled [to play at home], I’m thrilled, the coaching staff’s thrilled [and] the local fans are thrilled. It is going to be fantastic. We are going to have a huge party on Saturday night. And hopefully Sunday night as well.”

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