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St. Francis Brooklyn Survives in Penalties to Capture Fifth NEC Men's Soccer Crown Since 2013

4/16/2021



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Brooklyn, NY - Callum James faced his ninth penalty shot of a long afternoon on Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 5, turning it aside to send St. Francis Brooklyn onto Cloud 9.

With James’ save, the top-seeded Terriers turned aside longtime local rival Long Island University and won the 2020-21 Northeast Conference Men’s Soccer Championship Match, 6-5, in penalties.

St. Francis Brooklyn’s triumph yielded the program’s fifth NCAA Tournament berth in the last eight seasons.

It marked the second scoreless draw between the Terriers and the Sharks in less than one week. The two sides battled for 110 minutes without scoring a goal during Monday’s regular season finale, only to produce another stalemate four days later.

James, who also converted a penalty kick of his own in the sixth round of the tie-breaker, was not called upon often prior to the penalties. The NEC Goalkeeper of the Year needed to stop only two shots throughout full and extra time.

When the pressure was applied, however, James stood tall.

In the seventh and eighth penalty rounds, LIU was kicking with the chance to end it.

Twice, James made spectacular saves.

Then, Vicente Gallardo stepped up to the spot for SFBK and buried the ball into the lower left-hand corner to set the stage for James’ final denial.

“It’s amazing. I can’t put it into words,” the all-NEC goalkeeper said during a postgame interview on the NEC Front Row telecast. “Everything we’ve had to overcome this season; we’ve been shoveling snow off fields, we’ve been getting up at 6 o’clock. The amount we’ve been through. It’s been two years since we had a season and to come back this strong. Everyone’s bonded. Everyone’s done the work and we all deserve it.”
 
The Terriers controlled play throughout much of the match, out-shooting LIU by a 21-2 margin over the first 90:00.

St. Francis Brooklyn earned 14 corner kicks over the course of the title bout and its defense allowed none.

“We really rely on our defense. We take a lot of pride in that,” said St. Francis Brooklyn manager Tom Giovatto. “To keep LIU down two games in a row, 110 minutes, without giving up a goal, that’s special stuff.”

On the other end, LIU goalkeeper Demetri Skoumbakis foiled a number of SFBK scoring chances. He was credited with six saves during regulation.

“That goalkeeper today for LIU was incredible,” said Giovatto. “On another day, we may have had two or three goals. He was fabulous.”

Nicolas Molina, the NEC Player of the Year, fired a team-high eight shots for the Terriers.

After subbing in during a 67th minute change, Ivan Tapuskovic nearly had himself a goal in the 76th minute when his strike from about 20 yards out sailed only inches over the crossbar.

St. Francis Brooklyn has won the NEC Championship Match five times in the last eight seasons, but this one is different for Giovatto and his club.

“It’s a lot different [from past championships],” said Giovatto. “Every single day, you worried about your team being shut down. What we asked of these kids was incredible. At the end of the day, they’re stills kids, college kids, and they did everything we asked of them. They deserve everything.”