Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Despite Loss to National Champs, GU Remains in Blue Division Hunt

The Hoyas picked up points where it mattered most, but fell to the reigning national champions in a pair of exciting home matches at North Kehoe Field this past week. Georgetown defeated conference foe Pittsburgh 1-0 in a double-overtime marathon on Saturday before dropping its game on Wednesday against ACC titan Maryland, 2-1.

The Hoyas (8-4-1, 5-2 Big East) returned home over the weekend after splitting a pair of conference matches on the road at Connecticut and Seton Hall. Although definite favorites going in, the Blue and Gray found themselves in a dog fight with Pittsburgh (1-10-1, 0-6-1 Big East), as regulation ended scoreless. It was not until the 107th minute that junior defender Alex Verdi was able to break the deadlock and grab three points for Georgetown on a game-winning header – the third goal of his college career.

“He’s a gamer,” Head Coach Brian Wiese said. “Balls tend to fall to gamers.”

The Panthers played well throughout the game, keeping the Hoyas out of rhythm in the first half. Georgetown outshot Pittsburgh 10-5 but allowed five corners in the half, earning none for themselves.

“Every Big East game is going to be a battle,” Wiese said. “None of them are easy, and no one is going to give them to you.”

In the second stanza, Georgetown intensified its offensive attack, tallying seven corners and as many shots. Despite these opportunities, no Hoya found the back of the net, and the match went to overtime tied at zero.

The struggle continued through the first overtime and well into the second, when it appeared that each squad would walk away with a single point. Enter Verdi.

Following a foul about 40 yards from goal – with three minutes remaining in the match – junior midfielder Seth C’deBaca served a ball into the penalty area. After the ball bounced around for a few moments, Verdi managed to put his head on it and send it over the goal line, inspiring a joyful Hoya bench to empty onto the field in celebration.

“It’s a four-horse race [in the Big East Blue Division] right now,” Wiese said. “Every time you win a game, it puts pressure on the other three to keep pace with you, so it was an important win for us.”

The victory marked Georgetown’s eighth shutout of the season and brought the team within a point of division-leader Connecticut heading into Wednesday’s meeting with perennial powerhouse Maryland.

Although Georgetown was winless against Maryland (8-3-1, 3-1-1 ACC) in 26 previous attempts, Wiese could not have cared less.

“We expected to win this game when we scheduled it,” Wiese said. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t have scheduled it.”

Despite the Terrapins’ 2008 national championship, Wiese described the match at North Kehoe as “just another game for us.”

Unfortunately for the Hoyas, the first 12 minutes of the contest featured a start that was unlike any other they have experienced this year. Maryland’s athleticism and talent exploited the gaps between the Georgetown back four and midfield, and quickly put the Hoyas in a 2-0 hole.

“You never know how soccer’s going to treat you,” Wiese said. “We found ourselves down 2-0 on two pretty soft goals, which is very uncharacteristic of us. They’re a very active, busy team and they took advantage of the gaps in our back four. If you give good players enough space, they’re going to make something happen.”

It had been almost a month since the Hoyas had conceded multiple goals to an opponent, the last occurrence coming in a 2-0 defeat at the hands of St. John’s in mid-September.

“We don’t lose goals too often,” Wiese said. “We certainly don’t lose two goals too often. But the guys did a good job of stopping the bleeding. . They handled the situation very well. No one was hanging their heads or feeling sorry for themselves for one second.”

The Hoyas were able to turn things around later in the half when freshman midfielder Jimmy Nealis scored his first career goal in the 32nd minute on an assist from junior forward Chandler Diggs, drawing the Hoyas within one.

The score, however, came mere moments after a frightening on-field collision in which junior goalkeeper Mark Wilber was kicked in the head, suffering a concussion. Wiese was unsure about the severity of Wilber’s injury immediately after the game, but Wilber was forced to exit the match at the time; he was replaced by fellow junior goalkeeper Matthew Brutto.

The Hoyas remained on the offensive for the balance of the match, especially in the second half. Georgetown took 12 shots in the final 45 minutes compared to Maryland’s two, but none of them found the back of the net.

“They went to a 4-5-1 lineup, [which is] much more defensive,” Wiese said. “It literally felt like there were 10 red jerseys in the penalty box at a time. It’s not easy trying to get a ball through 10 guys.”

When the final whistle blew, Georgetown had yet to break through the Maryland defense a second time and fell 2-1.

“Everyone’s disappointed to not get the result,” Wiese said. “We know we played well enough to win today. We were creating enough, but in the end you need someone to make a special play.”

The silver lining for Georgetown after Wednesday is that its strong conference record was unaffected by the loss to Maryland.

Tomorrow, the Hoyas travel to Milwaukee to take on Marquette. If they continue to win matches, they will give themselves the chance to leapfrog Connecticut for first place in the Blue Division standings.”

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