Saint Mary’s (8-8-3, 4-3-0 WCC) climbed the mountain late this season with three consecutive wins to put themselves in contention for their first conference title since 2011, but fell just short of the summit Saturday night after a 1-0 defeat to Portland on the final day of the season. It was their first loss at Merlo Field since 2011.
The Gaels found themselves overwhelmed early, falling behind 3-0 on shots and 2-0 on shots on goal thanks to Portland’s dominant possession game out of the gate. One of those for shots found the net, as Matthew Coffey scored the game’s only goal six minutes in while catching Andrew Konstantino going low as Coffey went high on the near post.