The Hoyas used a sound defensive strategy to try to contain high-scoring Old Dominion in Tuesday’s men’s soccer match at Harbin Field, but the Monarchs’ firepower was too much to overcome, as ODU picked up a fifth straight win with a 2-1 victory. Coming off of two Big East victories?over West Virginia and Syracuse?Georgetown now falls back to .500 overall (4-4-1, 2-1 Big East).
Entering the game, it was clear that Georgetown was attempting to deny Old Dominion stars Attila Vendegh and Michael Tooley any opportunity to put the ball in the net. It worked to an extent, as neither got many good scoring chances. But if the score sheet is to be the barometer of all success, then the Hoyas failed in their mission, as Vendegh ended up with two assists, one of them on a goal by Tooley in the second half that gave the Monarchs an insurmountable 2-0 lead. The other ODU goal came in the first half from the foot of first-year Kevon Harris, who scored his first career goal. Georgetown senior forward Nate Port picked up his team-leading fifth goal of the season in the 64th minute to close the gap to 2-1, but the Hoyas were unable to tie the game up from there.
The loss comes despite a solid performance from both the defensive unit and from sophomore Georgetown goalkeeper Brian O’Hagan, who had six saves. In the first half, senior defender Michael Gross locked up Tooley, the current Colonial Athletic Association player of the week, in a sometimes physical role, shadowing Tooley on the left sideline. Georgetown senior co-captain Peter Finn played the same role on the opposite side against Vendegh, the CAA’s leading scorer with 10 goals on the season.
That is not to say that the Monarchs’ top two leading scorers (and still the only players on the team with multiple goals on the year) were completely shut down. Vendegh had the first shot of the game 12 minutes in, forcing O’Hagan to make a save from close range. Georgetown then managed to escape a great ODU scoring chance in the 19th minute. After O’Hagan made one point-blank save on Tooley, Vendegh fired back the rebound, but O’Hagan made a fantastic jumping save from his low position to pound the ball out of bounds with his arm.
Unfortunately, in their quest to keep the high scorers from succeeding, the Hoya defense allowed too many chances to the Monarchs’ other weapons. Harris broke the scoreless tie in the 32nd minute, his first career goal in his fifth start. In the second half, Harris played up front more as Michael Tooley drifted back to midfield more often than in the first half. Georgetown’s Dan Gargan, a fellow first-year, took care of Harris from there. But when the Monarch offense was allowed to get in place after a free kick in the 55th minute, Tooley took a sweet feed from Vendegh and launched a goal past O’Hagan to make the lead 2-0.
For the sophomore Vendegh, an import from Slovakia, it was a change of pace to be the man setting up goals. His two assists Tuesday matched his previous output for the season. The elder Vendegh, his first-year brother Belus, along with Harris and sophomore Tooley, look to be the nucleus of a potentially dominant offense in upcoming seasons.
In Tuesday’s game, ODU’s defense was strong as well, anchored by Anders Haugom, the very vocal team leader. Port’s goal for Georgetown in the 64th minute came on what was the team’s first shot on goal to that point. Georgetown’s offense was never working on all cylinders, as Port was sitting much of the time and first-year Kaiser Chowdhry, tied for second on the team with two goals this year, was not available for the game. In the closing minutes of the game, Old Dominion attempted to ease up a little, and Georgetown had the ball across midfield for most of that time, but they never got a good chance to tie the game up. ODU keeper Chad Calderone made two saves to ensure the victory.
As the game approached the end, the Hoyas began to get frustrated with the referees and ODU’s attempts to take time off the clock. Georgetown senior co-captain Kenny Owens yelled at the officials to complain about several infractions that the Hoyas felt were missed, before coach Keith Tabatznik called him off to take care of matters himself. When Attila Vendegh was stalling his attempt at a corner kick in the last minutes of play, Tabatznik was irate. ODU was warned on the matter once, when midfielder Ian Kaila received a yellow card for kicking the ball over the fence and out of play to further delay the game.
In the end, however, ODU was able to control the match. After starting 0-3, the Monarchs have been on fire, winning five straight. The Hoyas, meanwhile, can simply hope to throw this nonconference matchup out the window and attempt to get their minds back on the Big East, where they now play four games in a row. It starts with a Friday road trip to Notre Dame, and then the Hoyas return to Harbin Field this Tuesday to face Virginia Tech. The Hokies are ranked seventh in the South Atlantic region of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA,) three spots ahead of Old Dominion.
