Forward Miles Stockman-Willis and the St. Thomas men’s soccer team “Just couldn’t score” in a 1-0 loss to Carthage College Wednesday afternoon at South Field.
St. Thomas (7-4 overall, 3-2 MIAC) managed nine shots Wednesday but put only two of those on net. Coach Jon Lowery said the Tommies simply didn’t finish.
“We got into some good spots,” Lowery said. “We knew it was going to be a game where we wouldn’t get a ton of chances, so we wanted to create three, four or five chances to put one away.”
St. Thomas and Carthage both played physical and were penalized frequently throughout the game. The Tommies were called for 10 fouls while the Red Men were assessed 15.
“It was a tough game to officiate,” Lowery said. “They’re a good team and a hard team. We were at times, maybe not as much as we needed to.”
While St. Thomas’ defense held steady against the Carthage attack, its offense remained stagnant for much of the first half. Stockman-Willis registered the Tommies’ lone shot of the opening frame in the 34th minute. This is the first time this season St. Thomas was unable to score in the first half.
St. Thomas owned the majority of possession at halftime, but calls from the official stopped the momentum throughout the early portion of the game.
“It was a part of the game,” Lowery said.
St. Thomas began the second half strong with impressive ball placement and an ability to move the ball up the field and maintain possession. Defender Josh Boris said St. Thomas is usually successful when it plays with a certain game plan in mind.
“I think keeping the ball a lot and playing compacted defense is kind of our signature and helps stay organized,” Boris said. “What helped us the most was coming forward out of that organization and attacking out of our defense.”
The Tommies and Red Men traded unsuccessful chances throughout the match until Carthage forward Johnny Rimkus scored the game’s lone goal in the 88th minute.
“We again have given up a soft goal,” Stockman-Willis said. “We’ve outshot every team we’ve played. We have outperformed them defensively except for soft goals at the end.”
St. Thomas hopes to rebound from Wednesday’s loss when it hosts Macalester on Saturday.
“We got two days to train, come together here, refine a couple things and get at them on Saturday,” Lowery said.
Eric Bromback can be reached at brom0030@stthomas.edu.