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

Hoyas Shut Out Visitors in Weekend Homestand

The Georgetown men’s soccer team (2-1) swept their opponents at home over the weekend, defeating Radford (1-2), 2-0, Friday and Stanford (0-3), 1-0, in overtime Sunday.

Sophomore midfielder Steve Neumann netted all three goals for the Hoyas, while freshman goaltender Tomas Gomez recorded his first two career shutouts in the victories.

“You get some momentum from [these victories] for sure,” Head Coach Brian Wiese said. “This team, they just find ways to get the goal they need and hang on for that last little bit. So far, to be honest, it hasn’t been the prettiest soccer in the world, but we have a lot of guys that know how to win.”

The Blue and Gray grabbed an early advantage in Friday’s victory, scoring in the 24th minute. Junior defender Jimmy Nealis crossed the ball to junior midfielder John Snyder, who fed it to Neumann at the top of the box. The star sophomore knocked it past Radford’s Ryan Taylor to give the Hoyas their first goal of the season.

Just 1:19 later, Neumann added his second goal of the contest on a strike from thirty yards out.

For the rest of the match, Radford’s defense managed to contain the Georgetown attack while creating opportunities of their own. Fortunately for the Blue and Gray, most of Radford’s best attempts yielded shots off target, as only two of the Highlanders’ ten shots were on frame.

The Hoyas maintained control for the most part, however, landing five of their 10 shots on goal and edging the Highlanders in corner kicks, 5-4.

In Sunday’s overtime thriller over Stanford, Georgetown again controlled the tempo but failed to connect until the 105th minute on a scramble in front of the goal.

“We were getting forward well at the end of regulation and at the end of overtime,” Neumann said. “Jimmy [Nealis] served one in, Gabe did well to fight for it, and I just knocked it in. It was more lucky than good, but sometimes that’s better.”

After a relatively sluggish first half by both teams, the Hoyas took command of the contest in the second half. They took nine shots to the Cardinal’s three, as well as attempting eight corner kicks to Stanford’s one.

“We played the game in their half, and we had a lot of chances that we just didn’t execute,” Wiese said. “We had a couple great chances that just didn’t fall our way.”

The Blue and Gray did not want a repeat of last weekend, when they fell to Virginia Commonwealth on an extra time goal. They attck Stanford in extra time, outshooting them 3-0.

“Our guys were feeding off Stanford’s fatigue,” Wiese said. “They really wanted to press the issue. It would have been a shame not to have gotten the goal.”

“We were saying ‘we’re not going to lose this game,’ ” Neumann added. “We said it right after the VCUgame that we weren’t going to lose another home game, so we recovered from that first loss with two wins, so it’s great to have some momentum heading into the Michigan series.”

The Hoyas will have several days off before traveling to Michigan to face Big 10 foes Michigan State at 5 p.m. Friday and Michigan Sunday at 2 p.m.

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