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Boys soccer: St. Paul's beats Friends for B Conference crown

Friends wasn't about to just be a sacrificial lamb in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association B Conference championship against top-seeded St. Paul's (19-3) on Saturday night at Archbishop Spalding.

In fact, Quakers (12-5-1) made a game of it before bowing to the Crusaders, 2-1, despite falling behind on a couple of first-half goals by St. Paul's seniors Sam Tana and James Mugele.

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After the intermission, Friends prepared to make an all-out push toward St. Paul's sophomore keeper Luke Wilhelm and a stout backline that allowed only four goals in an 18-game winning streak coming into the championship.

To that end, Friends coach John Docherty moved senior Paul Orrson to more of an attacking position on a five-man midfield

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The Quakers did strike once on senior Jimmy Dendrinos' goal in the 66th minute on a beautiful shot that slipped off Wilhem's fingertips and inside the far post.

The goal was sandwiched by a couple of saves by Will Frost, the sophomore Quaker keeper who denied St. Paul's freshman scoring threat Nate Hall twice in a short span.

Friends, which lost both regular-season encounters to the Crusaders by a combined, 6-0, very nearly tied the score with four minutes remaining when senior Nabil Odulate sent a header wide and classmate Mike Sweet did the same on a left-footer two minutes later.

"They were putting a lot of pressure on, but I knew we'd stay strong," said senior defender Max Peters, who joined Gavin Llewellyn, Gavin Norris, William Tighe, BJ Matheiss and Andrew Nelson on the backline.

St. Paul's first-year coach Danny Skelton said it took the defending champs awhile to get used to him, and vice versa, for them to get on such a roll.

In the game, he said his team was poised to counterattack the more the Quakers pressed forward.

"Pushing numbers forward opened thing up for us to get some counters," he said.

Frost, however, was up to the task at the other end.

"Will has been outstanding," Docherty said. "He's kept us in a lot of games. I'm just happy I have him for two more years."

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