Campus News
September 16th, 2025
Lakers earn first-ever men's soccer win
Hamilton and Alonso score as GC rallies past Frederick CC, 2-1
Tuesday proved to be a night of firsts for the Garrett College men's soccer team.
Darius Hamilton scored the first goal in program history, lifting the Lakers into a 1-1 halftime tie with visiting Frederick Community College. Lucas Alonso then scored what proved to be GC's first-ever game-winning goal, taking a pass from Jeronimo Valencia and beating Cougar goalkeeper Casey Cutshall to the near left corner with 16:42 remaining as the Lakers held off Frederick, 2-1.
"It's nice to see the chemistry start to come together and for the players to reap some of the benefits of their hard work," said GC head coach Jonathan Price, who squad was shut out in each of its first two matches.
Praise Ngoma gave Frederick a 1-0 lead when he scored on a penalty kick 8:11 into the game. Hamilton answered a little over three minutes later with the unassisted equalizer from eight yards out.
The effort was awesome," said Price, whose team is now 1-2 overall and in the Maryland Junior College Athletic Conference. "Once we got behind, they buckled down and came back and scored pretty quickly after that."
Frederick (1-5-1, 1-4-1) finished with an 18-9 advantage in shots and 9-7 edge in shots on goal, but GC goalkeeper Wyatt Hull came through with eight saves. Hull had several spectacular stops as well as multiple saves made easier by good positioning.
"I don't have the length of other keepers," observed Hull. "I have to make sure my positioning is perfect or it could cost us a goal."
Cougar midfielder Nikolas Gusman had a pair of early, second-half scoring opportunities while the game was tied, 1-1.
Gusman unloaded a long, low shot from the left corner six minutes into the second half, but Hull was right there to make the initial stop and fall on the ball after briefly losing control. About four minutes later, Gusman sent a shot from 35 yards out just over the crossbar.
Alonso put a six-yard shot past Cutshall that he squeezed inside the left corner of the goal to put the Lakers ahead.
Now protecting a lead for the first time this season, Hull turned away shots by Ngoma and Omar Aguilar by protecting the short right and left corners, respectively. The Lakers' defense, meanwhile, came up big with 11 minutes remaining when Cougar Joshua Ames put a shot right into a wall of GC defenders on a free kick from the top of the box.
"The communication between Wyatt and the defense – JM Holland, Nathaniel Argrabrite, Kade Savage, Logan Mowen, and Anthony Diaz – was great," said Price. "They were definitely a collective unit on the back end."
GC had a couple of opportunities to put the game away in the waning minutes with an insurance goal.
Cutshall made a diving stop with 8:10 remaining on a Valencia shot to the short left corner. The Frederick goalkeeper then got away with a mistake when he was caught out of goal with 2:58 remaining only to have Hamilton's long shot go just wide of an empty net.
"We have some special guys on offense – Ben Lohr, Darius Hamilton, Lucas Alonso, Lucio Bianchi," Price said. "These are some guys who can do some exciting things. As we become a better team, the offense will come along and we'll get a lot more goals."
Frederick had the ball in a scrum in front of the GC goal as time expired. The Cougars did put the ball in the net, but clearly after the whistle, as the referees ruled after a brief conversation.
"We were all excited to get the first win in Laker history," said Hull. "The first two games were rough; I don't think we were quite in sync. This game was a good one to get us in sync."
Garrett was whistled for 16 fouls and Frederick for eight in a chippy contest that included three yellow cards handed out to the Lakers and one to the visitors.
"We have to learn how to deal with it," said Price. "If the referees are going to call things tight, we have to be able to adjust. We've allowed penalty kicks in three straight games and we have to grow defensively."
Women's Soccer
Garrett College 3, Frederick 0
Sophomore Jorjalynn Ward's hat trick and Kayla Moore's second shutout of the season sparked the Lady Lakers in Tuesday night's first home victory of the season.
"Jorjalynn said this was her first hat trick in her entire soccer career because she's always been a defender," said GC head coach Zach Ward, who was able to make Jorjalynn Ward a focal point of the offense thanks to the emergence of two freshmen.
"Livy Grieco and Kylee Kiddy have made a really good impact right away on the center of the defense," said Coach Ward. "That's allowed us to move Jorjalynn to midfield and find the goals that we needed."
Jorjalynn Ward, who now has a team-leading four goals, tallied off a Jacquelyn Jeffreys assist just five minutes into the second half for the game's first goal. She scored on a penalty kick with 27 minutes remaining and finished off the hat trick by scoring unassisted with 12 minutes remaining.
Moore stopped all six Frederick shots on goal to claim the shutout. GC (2-2 overall, 2-0 Region 20) finished with a 20-9 advantage in shots and an 11-6 edge in shots on goal.
Coach Ward is pleased with the progress his team has made over the season's first four matches.
"We knew coming in not having huge numbers could play a role in how our season progressed, but our 14 athletes have all accepted the roles that they're playing," he observed.
Frederick fell to 1-3 overall and 1-2 in NJCAA Division II Region 20.
Notes: Jeffreys has assisted on two of GC's six goals this season, with the other four unassisted.
