MEN'S SOCCER | Riemer's Hat Trick Seals Win Over Penn

Before No. 12 Georgetown (7-0-1) faced Princeton and Penn this weekend, Head Coach Brian Wiese said that it would be a “tremendous accomplishment” if the Hoyas could emerge with wins over both Ivy League foes.

As it turned out, the Blue and Gray escaped the Tigers with a 1-0 victory Friday and then triumphed, 3-1, over the Quakers on Sunday to turn Wiese’s conditional into a reality.

“It’s great,” senior midfielder Andy Riemer said of his team’s two weekend wins. “The Ivy League is always underrated. [Its teams] always come out with a lot more fire and a lot more skill than you’d think initially.”

Both games, to be sure, were difficult ones for Georgetown, despite what each opponent’s record and Sunday’s final score may suggest.

Against Princeton, standout freshman forward Brandon Allen once again put his team on the board first, heading home his own rebounded shot in the 14th minute to give his team the early advantage. The Hoyas continued to dictate play after grabbing the lead, but no more goals would come their way.

The hosts, in fact, ended up with the better share of opportunities, but junior goalkeeper Keon Parsa stepped into the net and recorded five key saves to preserve both the clean sheet and the win in his first appearance of the season.

A simple desire to conserve energy was likely the reason sophomore goalie Tomas Gomez, the usual starter, was absent between the pipes on Friday. That theme of resting legs reverberated on a grander scale on Sunday.

Aside from a returning Gomez, the lineup that Georgetown trotted out against Penn was different from any other put on the field thus far this season. Sophomore midfielder Tom Skelly, returning from injury, took sophomore Tyler Rudy’s spot on the wing, while senior John Snyder was placed into the defensive midfield role.

Snyder’s insertion pushed junior Joey Dillon out of his usual spot and into the back line alongside freshman Cole Seiler, a spot that Dillon noted he had tested in the spring but with which he was admittedly still unfamiliar.

“Coach Wiese was trying to change it up a little today just to test it out,” Dillon said after the game. “[Playing as a central defender] took me some time to get used to, but by the end of the game, I was comfortable [playing alongside] the other guys in the back.”

“My feeling coming into this weekend is that it’s deep enough into the season that you can see the legs starting to get tired,” Wiese said. “This, to me, was a really great result for us, because we got a lot of guys in who stepped up and played really well.”

Two of those players that stepped up were freshmen making their debuts off the bench, but in the end, the man of the match for the Blue and Gray on Sunday was a much more familiar face.

The veteran Riemer, who had scored twice — including the overtime game-winner — against Illinois-Chicago the weekend before, accounted for all three goals against Penn.

The McLean, Va., native put his team on the board in the 36th minute, sliding one home from inside the 6-yard box after a nice run and ball in by junior forward Steve Neumann.

An incredible long-range strike from Penn less than three minutes later, however, would level the score.

It would remain 1-1 until just under 15 minutes remained, when sophomore forward Austin Martz found Riemer once again lurking around the 6 and the senior put his team back up. He would later add an insurance goal in the 85th minute to seal the win and his hat trick.

“I think we’re playing, as a team, better soccer every game,” Riemer said. “Today, I was just in the right place at the right time. … Those three finishes are just pretty easy, when it comes to it, because of the great passes.”

“[Penn] played a great game, but we were able to play our type of soccer today, and I think the result showed that,” Riemer added.

Dillon was likewise proud of his squad’s performance, explaining that the Hoyas’ game plan to stop the Quakers’ attack was executed as intended.

“We kept the ball well,” he said. “Penn is a good team [that] likes to counterattack, and we didn’t give it many chances to do that. We created some chances, [and I] wish we could’ve put them away earlier, but overall, I think we played pretty well.”

The win keeps Georgetown’s undefeated record intact, but a new challenge is now on the horizon: Big East play is set to begin this week.

Rutgers (3-2) is first up for the Blue and Gray on Saturday at North Kehoe Field, and Wiese stressed that the team has no intention of slipping into complacency.

“We’re upset about the tie,” Wiese deadpanned when asked how he felt about Georgetown’s 7-0-1 start.