Local Stars Lead Loyola Back To Tourney

Two-time Loyola captain Josh Taylor was a four-year starter at Archbishop Curley.  (Loyola Athletics)

By: Keith Mills

The Loyola College men's soccer team (18-1-1) nailed down another berth to the NCAA College Cup Monday, earning a No. 9 seed and a first-round bye, thanks to a group of area players who have carried on the rich Baltimore-Greyhounds tradition -- senior Josh Taylor (Archbishop Curley) and sophomores Mike Deasel (Loyola Blakefield), Mike Gill (Calvert Hall), Kyle Wittman (Calvert Hall) and Wade McHugh (McDonogh) and freshman Vince DiPino (Dulaney).

Taylor, Deasel and McHugh start for coach Mark Mettrick, who has continued a tradition of recruiting Baltimore area players that began in the 1940s and reached its peak under coaches Jim Bullington and Bill Sento, who both achieved monumental national success at Loyola with area players as their nucleus.

Pete Notaro is Loyola's all-time leading scorer with 185 points, scoring 81 goals with 25 assists from 1975 to '78. Notaro was an outstanding player at Patterson High School in East Baltimore. Dennis Wit and Nick Mangione are the third and fourth leading scorer's in Loyola history. Wit went to Dulaney and played for the United States national team while Mangione went to Polytechnic and later played for the Baltimore Blast. And two of the best goalkeepers in school history also came from Baltimore -- Calvert Hall's John Houska and Edgewood's Zach Thornton, who plays professionally for Benfica in Portugal.

Notaro, Mangione and Houska helped Bullington's Greyhounds -- a squad which also included Blast president and general manager Kevin Healey -- win three Mason-Dixon Conference championships and the 1976 Division II national title and set the table for the Division I success that followed under Sento and Mettrick.

Bullington retired in 1980 and was replaced by Sento, who won three Class A high school state championships at Loch Raven in 1974, '75 and '77. Like Bullington, Sento's roster at Loyola included a group of local players who formed the nucleus of 10 Conference championship teams and four teams that went to the Division I NCAA tournament.

Jeff Nattans, Rob Elliott and Billy Karpovich all played at Calvert Hall for the legendary Bill Karpovich, Sr., who won 422 games and 19 MSA or MIAA championships in his 31 years as the Cardinals' coach. That trio helped the Greyhounds make back-to-back NCAA quarterfinals in 1986 and '87.

Mettrick replaced Sento after the 1999 season and has certainly continued the tradition of excellence. And he's done it by going into some of the best local programs in town and recruiting some of area's premier players.

Mettrick, whose son Matt plays at Calvert Hall, grew up in Manchester England and arrived in Baltimore 20 years ago as a member of the Blast. After spending seven years as an assistant and later head coach at Mount St. Mary's, Mettrick took the Loyola job nine years ago and has since won seven MAAC Conference championships.

Led by six Baltimore area stars, this year's Loyola squad was ranked sixth nationally before Sunday's loss to Fairfield in the MAAC Championship game snapped the Greyhounds' 27-game unbeaten streak.

Taylor is the defensive anchor of a Loyola midfield that also includes McHugh and Deasel. A four-year starter for coach Barry Stitz at Curley, Taylor is a two-time captain of the Greyhounds who has started since his freshman year.

Deasel went to Loyola/Blakefield where he helped the Dons win a share of the A Conference crown four years ago. He was a two-time all-state selection and has played on two national club championship teams with the Baltimore Bays.

McHugh has six assists in his sophomore year at Loyola after helping McDonogh win the A Conference championship three years ago. McHugh was an eight-year member of the state's Olympic Development Program.

DiPino played for former Blast goalie Scott Manning at Dulaney, where he was a three-year starter and an All-Baltimore County selection last year. Wittman and Gill played for coach Andy Moore at Calvert Hall.

Posted November 18, 2008