Hopkinson’s Two Goals lead the Monarchs’ to the Final
Written By: Jake Ullrich
Assistant Sports Editor
When one usually thinks of a semi-final match, they think defense and a tight, close game. It wasn’t exactly that Friday night for the Monarchs, but in the end, they won and moved on to the CAA finals with a 5-3 win over Georgia State.
First-half goals by Alex DeJohn and Tim Hopkinson aided by second-half goals by Hopkinson again, Jordan LeBlanc and Gideon Asante ensured the Monarchs would clinch a victory, albeit a bit of a wild match.
Georgia State started the better of the two teams and should have gone ahead in the eight minute when Evan Scott missed a wide-open header inside the 18-yard box. The Panthers were peppering the Monarchs’ goal and should feel quite unlucky not to have gotten an early goal.
The Monarchs’ made them pay for their early misses in the 19 minute from a very unlikely source. The Monarchs’ aren’t really considered a dominant aerial threat and rarely look threatening from corners, but DeJohn finished brilliantly at the back post from a fine Hopkinson corner.
“It’s the first corner goal I’ve seen in about 14 years,” coach Alan Dawson said after the game. “And the first goal I’ve ever seen from DeJohn.”
The score may unfairly reflect the relatively impressive performance from the defense, led by junior DeJohn’s return to the lineup. After missing the past two matches with a foot injury, his performance Friday night gave immense confidence to the Monarchs’ backline.
“He’s got pace, his aerial ability is second to none,” Tommy Webb said of DeJohn. “He brings such a balance to the back four when he’s back there.”
The Monarchs’ didn’t take long to double their lead when Hopkinson scored in the 36 minute after a brilliant finish from 20 yards out. A long ball from Chris Harmon found Hopkinson’s feet, who unleashed a fantastic strike into the top corner.
“I was a bit guilty cause I missed a similar one earlier,” Hopkinson said of the goal. “So that one, I didn’t even see it hit the net. I just saw the players jump on me, so I’ll take it.”
What should have been a comfortable 2-0 lead into halftime quickly turned into a nerve-racking 2-1 when Gimel Gordon scored in the 38 minute. The goal changed the feel of the game and gave the Panthers much more fight going into the second half.
“Had it been 2-nil at the half, I would have been feeling really good about it,” Dawson said. “That goal changed the complexity of the game. I was disappointed the second half that we didn’t jump all over them.”
Georgia State came out the stronger of the two teams in the second half, and equalized in the 62 minute when Ayokunle Lumpkin scored after a wonderful counter-attacking move left him a simple tap-in.
Hopkinson, who had missed a brilliant chance in the 73 minute, made sure of his chance in the 75 after an Alex Vaughn shot was saved and he calmly slotted the rebound into the corner to give the Monarchs’ the lead once again.
“I thought he was terrific in the first half,” coach Dawson said of Hopkinson. “The kid could have four goals tonight. He had a couple of goals and a couple of bad misses.”
A penalty kick in the 79 minute after a clear handball in the penalty box allowed LeBlanc to step up and send the goalkeeper the wrong way to reinstate the Monarchs’ two-goal lead.
The Panthers, however, ensured an interesting last five minutes, when Peter Vania scored off a corner to cut the lead to one goal yet again. It was the second time in four games that the Monarchs gave up three goals, a problem that could come and hurt them in the later rounds of the tournament.
“Defensively, we haven’t found our rhythm yet,” Webb said. “We’re leaking goals and we don’t know why. We got to put our finger on it and straighten it out.”
While the Panthers threw men forward looking for an equalizer, Asante made them pay when he scored a brilliant goal to seal the win. A long ball over the top found Asante one on one with the last defender. He calmly tapped the ball over the defenders head and slotted the ball past the keeper for a trip to the finals.
It may not have been exactly how the Monarchs had written it up, but at the end of the day, they booked a place for an opportunity to win the CAA championship, a goal they had set early in the season.
“When we had to come up with the goods,” coach Dawson said, “we got the job done.”
Photo By Marlie De Clerck
