Ave Maria, Fla. — The Ave Maria Men's Soccer team closed out its 2025 campaign Wednesday night with a 3–1 loss to the New College of Florida Mighty Banyans at Gyrene Field.
The visiting Banyans struck first in the 9th minute when Pablo Herrera converted a pass from Sebastian Pedraza to give New College the early lead.
The Gyrenes wasted no time responding. Just over a minute later, Levi Orlando buried the equalizer off an assist from Hayden Wysocki, leveling the score at 1–1. It was the third goal of the season for the senior from Gulf Breeze, Florida, and his first since scoring twice against Texas College.
Despite several strong chances before halftime, Ave Maria could not break away, and they went into the break knotted up at one.
The second half belonged to New College, as Cameron Johnson put the Banyans back in front in the 60th minute, followed by a Fabian Donal strike ten minutes later to seal the win.
The Gyrenes took just four shots in the second half, only one of which was on goal and saved by the Mighty Banyan keeper.
On the other side of the pitch, goalkeeper Andrija Vujakovic recorded six saves for the Gyrenes.
Ave Maria finished with 11 shots and four on target, while New College tallied 16 total shots and nine on goal.
With the result, Ave Maria concluded its season with a 6-10-2 overall record and 1-7 in SUN conference play. Six wins is the most in program history since 2018 and is triple the amount of wins from 2024.
For the whole year, Sava Cadjenovic turns in the second-most goals in a single season in program history with 14. The Sophomore from Montenegro scored in 10 of the 18 matches, recording his first career hat trick against Texas College and notching two more multi-goal games.
Mateo Rolon also turned in a very impressive season with 10 goals, tying him for the sixth-highest scoring season. Jael Parraga was third on the team with six goals, followed by Orlando with three, Brandon Gomez with two, and Riley Green, Niko Briceno, Thomas Hoeing, Mateo Mencos and Luis Mendoza all with one.
Vujakovic ends the year with 96 saves, the third most in a single season in AMU history, and a goals against average of 2.33, the third lowest in program history. Career-wise, the sophomore still has the lowest GAA in school history and rises to the fourth-most saves.
The Gyrenes now head into the offseason and anxiously await 2026 when they can return to the pitch.
