Following their blowout of the Virginia Military Academy on Wednesday night, the Georgetown men’s soccer team endured a harrowing 3-1 loss to Big East opponent Providence Saturday under piercing sun at North Kehoe Field.
In the first half, the Hoyas displayed immense vigor and team harmony on the field as they held the Friars off the scoreboard and away from senior goalkeeper Tim Hogan’s box, holding Providence to only one shot. The Hoyas, however, assaulted Providence junior keeper Jeff Newman, posting nine shots and four on goal. Hoyas junior midfielder Paul Brandley capitalized on the offensive attack, connecting for the first goal of the game in the 22nd minute. Junior forward Kaiser Chowdhry had the ball in front of the goal and passed it to Brandley, who shot the ball into net only to be blocked by goalkeeper Newman. As Providence defenders struggled to clear the ball from the front of the net, Brandley struck it home this time as it scuttled past the goal line through three Providence defenders.
“The goal definitely gave us a boost going into the second half,” said Brandley. “I just don’t know what happened in the second half.”
The Hoyas went into halftime with the lead, but as they came out in the second half, they were a different team with a different offensive and defensive cadence.
“We came out flat, and just didn’t score any goals,” said junior back Dan Gargan. “We just can’t do that; we looked awful.”
The persistent attack witnessed in the first half of play turned into an uninspiring offensive execution in the second half as the Hoyas were out shot and outscored by the Friars.
“We came out lackluster,” said Gargan. “We were in the wrong positions and we made bad plays: we just weren’t in the right places.”
The Friars tied the match 12 minutes into the second half as sophomore midfielder Eoin Lynch netted a shot just past Hogan with an assist from first-year midfielder David Chase.
“We didn’t keep possession,” said Head Coach Keith Tabatznik. “In the first half, we were doing everything, but we didn’t do it in the second half. We showed a lack of discipline.”
Seconds later, sophomore midfielder Ian Wexler dribbled the ball from just past midfield and sailed the ball off the fingertips of Hogan and into the back of the net, giving Providence the lead. The Friars finished their scoring fiesta with an unassisted goal from Lynch in the 87th minute. As the Georgetown offense remained up field attacking Newman’s goal in an attempt to even the match, Lynch dribbled the ball down field and outmaneuvered Hogan to the ground and scored on an almost empty net, giving the Friars the win.
“On the third goal we were just pushing everybody up trying to score,” said Gargan. “We were just giving it to them; Providence is not a bad team, we just can’t do that.”
In stark contrast to the first half when the Georgetown defense kept Providence from bringing the ball in the vicinity of Hogan’s net, the defensive squad kept Hogan very busy fending off the Friar attack.
Again, as in the game against Notre Dame on Sept. 28, the match was marred by aggressive play and multiple flagrant fouls on both ends.
Early in the first half, a Providence player punched goalie Tim Hogan in a mild fracas which caused first-year defender Tim Convey and another Providence player to tussle, but neither player received a yellow card.
Shortly thereafter, Chowdhry was hit with a yellow card for rough tackling on a Friar. Later in the second half, Convey was hit with a yellow card for getting physical with junior forward Jeff Smith.
“I was disappointed in the focus,” said Tabatznik. “We were getting rough and physical and played right into them.”
Providence took three more shots than Georgetown and four more shots on goal. The shots were not the major concern for the Hoyas, as the loss to the Friars sinks Georgetown deeper into the hole in the Big East.
“Year to year, you need five wins in the Big East,” said Gargan. “We have eight tough games left, we need to refocus.”
The Hoyas travel to College Park, Md. on Wednesday night to face the No. 2 ranked University of Maryland Terrapins. The Hoyas were taken down by Maryland 2-0 last year in College Park.
“We’ve played them the last two years; they’re a great team,” said Gargan. “We have to nothing to lose; they’re a big time team. We know that we can play the big time teams, we just need to prove it to everyone else.”
