WILMINGTON — Saint Mark’s and Wilmington Charter faced off for the second time in a week on May 22 in the opening round of the DIAA tournament. And while the first part of the contest had a lot of similarities to last week’s, the finish was much different.
The seventh-seeded Force fell behind early, then fought back, but this time, No. 10 Saint Mark’s found the will to hold off Charter for a 12-8 road win. The Spartans — who won their first postseason game in a decade — will travel to Lewes on Saturday to meet No. 2 Cape Henlopen at 11 a.m.
Dan Mitchell got the scoring started, skipping a ball past goalie Gavin Van Horn 71 seconds in. It took the Force less than a minute to equalize, as Brody Hood found himself all alone in front of Spartans goalie Logan Gibbons.
Both teams were aggressive on defense, and the Spartans turned a Force turnover into a lead they would never relinquish. Alex Salerni went low at the 8:56 mark to put Saint Mark’s ahead, 2-1. The Spartans had a 5-2 lead after a quarter, similar to the four-goal lead they held during the regular-season matchup.
Charter trailed by three goals after a goal by Michael Stella early in the second, but this time, the Spartans responded with some offense of their own. Salerni converted a long pass into a goal with 5:58 left in the half, and Saint Mark’s capitalized on a man-up situation with a goal from Bruce Abbott. Finally, Mitchell whipped a shot from the goalie’s right into the net to make it 9-3. Gibbons made three saves in the final two minutes of the half, including one at the buzzer, to keep the margin at six.
The Force regrouped at halftime and came out firing. They were a man up when Ruhan Patel scored off the inside right post. Charles Tao won the ensuing faceoff and passed to Domenick Paoli, who scored Charter’s second in five seconds to cut the lead to 9-5 and sending the home crowd into a frenzy.
Gibbons kept the lead at four goals with a huge save, and Charter missed on a few shots. Finally, with the Force down a man, David Astfalk sent a shot along the grass into the net, but the Force maintained momentum. They scored two goals in a 34-second span late in the third, and Tao opened the fourth with a faceoff win and goal of his own just five seconds in to cut the Spartans’ lead to 10-8.
Much of the fourth belonged to the defenses. Gibbons and Charter’s Nathan Chiou took turns repelling shots, and the defenses were active in causing turnovers. Finally, after eight and a half minutes with no scoring, Nate Hughes one-timed a pass into the net to give the Spartans a bit of breathing room. Saint Mark’s did a good job of holding on to the ball for much of the remaining three minutes, and when Charter did get a shot, Gibbons was there. One of his saves led to the Spartans’ final goal, also from Hughes, this one with 2:33 to go.
As the final horn sounded, the Spartans piled on each other on the field. It was the program’s first postseason win since a victory over Middletown on May 24, 2014, in the quarterfinals.
Seven different Spartans scored, led by hat tricks from Hughes and Chase Wisniewski. Gibbons had 14 saves. Saint Mark’s improved to 13-3 with the win.
Wilmington Charter finished the season 11-5.
Photos by Mike Lang.
