When the Hoyas upset defending national soccer champion UConn on Sept. 20, it looked to be a springboard to a renewed run at the NCAA tournament. Georgetown’s record was back up to .500 overall and 4-3 in the Big East after handing Connecticut its first conference loss of the season. Georgetown was ranked in the South Atlantic region of the National Coaches Poll for the first time since Sept. 3, and the team had to know that rattling off a few more wins would be the difference between a postseason appearance and an early winter.
But the magic faded away after the emotional win over Connecticut, and the Hoyas dropped two subsequent road games to ranked teams Boston College and Navy, which effectively shattered their dreams of making it to the tournament. Thus, as the season winds into the final week, the spotlight is on the seven seniors leaving the Hoyas, for whom Wednesday’s nonconference match-up against Penn would be the next-to-last appearance at Harbin Field.
Of course, it was a first-year who went on to steal the show. Dan Gargan picked a most opportune time to notch his first career goal, as his last-ditch effort from outside the box hit the back of the net with just two seconds left to give Georgetown a 2-1 win over the visiting Quakers. The Hoyas move to 7-8-1 overall and remain 4-4 in the Big East.
Penn led off the scoring in the 19th minute on an unassisted goal from Stephen Kroculick that first-year Hoya keeper Tim Hogan couldn’t keep out of the top left corner. Georgetown senior Truls Engrebretsen tied it up in the 34th minute by bouncing a ball in off a Penn defender after receiving a clear path to the net from a Kaiser Chowdhry assist. It was Engrebretsen’s third goal of the year but his first since Sept. 18, breaking a dry spell of scoring from any player outside of Chowdhry, senior Nate Port and senior Kenny Owens in the 10 games since then.
Wednesday’s win was also the first time that Hogan had played since same Sept. 18, blowout of St. Peter’s, filling in for regular starter Brian O’Hagan. He played behind a solid defense that only allowed five shots, of which Hogan had to make two saves.
Chowdhry played well, picking up his third assist of the season to match his three goals this year, though he was the frequent target of yells from the bench because of his unwillingness to attack the ball in his end at times. Kevin Sindelar also showed a glimpse of his potential with some nifty ball movement, though he failed in his attempt to get his first career goal. Instead, the man getting that honor turned out to be Gargan.
With the game tied in the final seconds, Georgetown had a corner kick, for which the 5-foot-8-inch Chowdhry was pulled to allow a tall line-up, since the only likely way to score would have been to head the ball in directly off the kick. But the entering kick bounced away without such a header attempt being made, and some players on both sides appeared resigned to the fact that the game would head to overtime. But after leading scorer Port bounced the ball outside the box, Gargan charged and made a single thrust at the ball that launched it through a crowd of defenders and in for the miracle goal. After scoring the game-winner, Gargan pulled his jersey over his head and sprinted the length of the field as several Penn defenders fell to the ground in shock. When the crowd congratulating Gargan after the game asked about his celebration, he offered a smirk. After all, you have to give a guy free reign when he gets his first career goal in such a storybook fashion.
Penn, ranked seventh in the Mid-Atlantic region of the NSCAA poll, drops its third game in a row to fall to 6-6-1. Penn Head Coach Brian Fuller is a Georgetown graduate who both played and coached under Hoya coach Keith Tabatnik. Fuller got the Penn head coaching job after assisting as a coach for Georgetown’s last trip to the NCAA tournament in 1997. The group of current Georgetown seniors that entered after Fuller’s last season on the bench will end their careers without a trip to the tournament, unless Georgetown can pull off a string of upsets in the Big East tournament, which begins Nov. 10.
Until then, there are two more games left on the regular season schedule. Saturday is the final home game at Harbin Field against Seton Hall, followed by a trip Tuesday to Pittsburgh to make up a game postponed from Sept. 15. The Hoyas must win both to match last year’s final record of 9-8-1. They are currently one point behind Syracuse (4-4-1 Big East) for seventh in the conference.
