ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Thanks to a goal from junior forward Baba Kallie in the opening minute of the second half, the Navy men's soccer team started the 2022 season on Thursday evening with a 1-0 win over Saint Joseph's at the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility.
 
Dominating possession early and making key defensive stops late to keep sophomore goalkeeper Pierce Holbrook's shutout intact, the Midshipmen moved themselves to 1-0-0 on the campaign, while the visiting Hawks shifted to 0-1-0.
 
Navy used a strong start to set up sophomore midfielder Wasswa Robbins in the ninth minute just outside the box, but his shot trailed high to the right side of SJU goalkeeper Luis Ludosan. SJU responded with a quality chance of its own in the 17th minute, as Omry Perel maneuvered around two defenders to get close on Holbrook's left side, but the Hawk midfielder put it just above the crossbar off his right foot.
 
Despite Navy directing play early, the Hawks actually recorded the first shot on goal at 24', as James Fletcher forced Holbrook to stop a low shot from outside the box. The teams traded shots off-target the rest of the half.
 
Coming out of halftime, a mistake by Ludosan and his defenders allowed junior midfielder David Jackson to intercept a pass and feed Kallie dead-center, as Kallie buried the shot to the lower right corner just 27 seconds into the final half, giving him his seventh career goal.
 
Holbrook made another save when Garrett Lyons' header was on-target following a Hawks' corner kick in the 56th minute. Kallie nearly added his second goal of the contest at 63' when Robbins was able to get past Ludosan's right and centered pass from the end line, but Kallie's shot missed just to the outside of the right post.
 
Saint Joseph's turned up the pressure in the final 16 minutes with the Mids trying to protect their lead, as the Hawks tallied five corners with much of the action in the Navy end. Despite keeping it past midfield for most of that time, SJU managed to get off just three more shots, as two were blocked by Navy defenders while the final shot was on goal by Mikkel Andersen, but Holbrook finished off his shutout by stopping Andersen's attempt to the top-right corner of the net with over two minutes remaining.
 
"I was really happy with the first half and how we played generally," said Navy head coach Tim O'Donohue. "When Cristian Coelho and David went down early in the second half, we had to find our feet a bit, but getting Baba going is important and we had some excellent play from Noah Ward and Wassa up front, along with a very good effort from the back-four. Saint Joe's is an excellent set piece team and it was a good test for our squad, so I'm happy to be 1-0 on the season."
 
Overall, Saint Joseph's mustered 10 shots compared to seven for Navy, while the Hawks also had a 7-5 edge in corner kicks, as Navy recorded four corner in the first half while all seven for SJU came in the final 45 minutes of action.
 
Navy now takes a 10-2-0 lead in the all-time series with Saint Joseph's, remaining unbeaten at home against the Hawks at 6-0-0.
 
With the win, the Mids are undefeated in their last four season openers, going 3-0-1 in that span, while Navy also improved to 70-18-14 in season openers all-time. Additionally, Navy has won nine of its last 10 matches at Glenn Warner.
 
Navy returns to action on Sunday, Aug. 28, when the Mids host Fairfield at 5 p.m.