The Georgetown men’s soccer improved its Big East standing to fifth place by tying No. 1 ranked St. John’s 0-0 in a hard-fought, two-overtime battle Saturday on North Kehoe Field and defeating West Virginia 1-0 on Monday at Morgantown, W. Va.
Against St. John’s, Georgetown attacked early, posting four shots in the first half, and gave an extraordinary defensive effort, allowing St. John’s only five shots, despite the fact that the majority of the half was played around the Georgetown box.
“The defense was doing great,” said junior goalkeeper Tim Hogan. “A lot of [St. John’s] shots were blocked by my guys; they had no clear chances.”
In the second half, Georgetown’s aggressiveness waned, and the Hoyas had only four shots to the Red Storm’s 10. Hogan had four saves in the period to keep the contest scoreless.
In the sixth minute of the second overtime, sophomore forward Kaiser Chowdry failed to capitalize on a free kick, sending the ball over the St. John’s goal.
“It could have gone in and it should have gone in,” said Chowdry.
The Hoyas finished with 10 shots to the Red Storm’s 19, and Hogan had seven saves to St. John’s junior Bill Gaudette’s four.
Georgetown was missing two of its best players, junior defender Carl Freeburg and first-year forward Benjamin Jefferson-Dow to injury and a previous red card, respectively. In addition, first-year forward Kemmons Feldman’s play was hampered by a knee injury.
Chowdhry stepped in to fill the void, leading the defense and setting up key offensive opportunities.
“Kaiser played a great game,” said Head Coach Keith Tabatznik. “Having Freeburg and Jefferson-Dow out was difficult for us but the other guys picked up the slack.”
Against West Virginia neither team scored in the first half, with the only goal of the game coming off the foot of sophomore defender Paul Brandley in the 67th minute.
“It felt great,” said Brandley. “We knew we had to win so we went out there and played our hardest.”
The Georgetown defense kept West Virginia in check for the entire game, helping Hogan to earn his fourth shutout of the season and Big East Goalkeeper of the Week honors. Sophomore midfielder Dan Gargan won Big East Defensive Player of the Week.
Before the game against West Virginia, the Hoyas were in seventh place in the Big East and fighting to stay alive in the conference tournament race. With the win they clinched the No. 5 spot in the conference and will play No. 4 in the conference and No. 17 nationally Notre Dame on Saturday in South Bend, Ind. in the first round of the Big East Championship. The Hoyas routed Notre Dame 4-1 at home last week, and are confident about their chances in the tournament.
“We feel very good about our performance,” said Tabatznik. “We battled our way back when everyone counted us out. We need to take this momentum, win the Big East Tournament and get the automatic bid for the NCAA tournament. There’s no more pressure on us than there is on the other seven teams. Notre Dame beat us twice last year and we see that as payback.”
The women’s soccer team lost in the first round of the Bog East Tournament Saturday against the No. 11 team in the nation, Connecticut with a 1-0 loss in Storrs, Conn.
The first half ended with both teams scoreless. The only goal of the game came from Connecticut’s sophomore forward Zahra Jalalian early in the second half.
“Our mentality was good but we were beaten by a better team,” said Head Coach Diane Drake. “Connecticut is in the top-10 in the country for a reason. We lack the experience to play confidently in the attack against a team of that level. We did great defensively, but struggled connecting the final pass.”
The team now awaits Monday’s NCAA tournament selection to learn of their postseason fate.
“The [Big East] tournament was bittersweet,” said junior forward Jessie Beers-Altman. “We were excited to have made it but if we had one more conference win we wouldn’t have had to face a nationally ranked team like UConn and we would have had a better chance of making it to the championship game.”
The NCAA tournament is composed of 72 teams with conference winners having an automatic bid and the rest determined by a selection committee. The committee bases its decisions on strength of schedule and regular season record. The Hoyas are confident that they will make the tournament based on the strength of their regular season schedule and their overall record.
“We had the toughest schedule we’ve had in a long time,” said Beers-Altman. “We ranked well ahead of all the teams we played. The losses we had were against really good teams so I think the losses will help us in the selection process.”
Whether they make it to the tournament or not, the team agrees that they had a successful season by making it to the Big East Tournament for the first time in three years.
“We’ve had our best season yet,” said junior goalkeeper Alexis George. “This is the first time we have followed through with our goals.”
