Georgetown dropped the final game of the 2004 D.C. College Cup at American University, 2-1. The Hoyas’ hopes of a repeat title ended with a sixth minute golden goal in overtime. American attacking midfielder Sal Caccavale drilled home a free kick from just outside of the box.
“We gave up a lot of free kicks and we were bound to get burned on one of them,” Head Coach Keith Tabatznik said.
American controlled the game from the start, limiting Georgetown’s touches.
“There were only a few bits of moving the ball well, otherwise people were just taking extra touches,” Tabatznik said. “You can’t wear a team down if you hold the ball without passing it around.”
In the 22nd minute, junior midfielder Dan Pydo streaked down the left side into American territory before playing the ball down the sideline to senior forward Kaiser Chowdhry. Chowdhry’s cross into the middle was a half step too far for Pydo to finish.
Georgetown controlled the game for the last third of the half, generating another chance when sophomore forward Ricky Schramm’s cross just missed Chowdrhy in front of the net. The Hoyas kept attacking, and in the 31st minute, sophomore midfielder Daniel Grasso picked up a loose ball and ripped it into the lower left corner of the net.
“We didn’t give up a lot of shots to Georgetown, but when we did they were good enough to take care of it,” American Head Coach Todd West said.
After the goal, the game turned into an attacking battle. American almost went equal when senior midfielder Shawn Kuykendall broke through, but shot wide. The Hoyas’ dodged another bullet a few minutes later when sophomore goalkeeper Andrew Keszler made a diving stop on a free kick.
Despite the 1-0 halftime advantage, the Hoyas clearly were lucky to be out front.
“The only time period when we were looking really good in this game was at the end of the first half,” Tabatznik said
American opened the second half with regained intensity. They consistently pushed their forwards into the Hoyas’ end.
“The one thing we tried to do was get our forwards higher up, or at least push on Curtin,” West said. “He’s a big guy and we wanted to at least give him some work to do. If we kept laying off, he would clean everything up.”
The small change paid off in the 51st minute when Kuykendall took a corner kick that sophomore midfielder Nigel White put home with a diving header to equalize.
“The first goal was an awful goal to give up because we were just standing there, not defending,” Tabatznik said. ” Then the smallest guy on the field got on the end of it, right in the middle of everybody. That’s a lack of focus, lack of concentration.”
Georgetown threatened only once more in the 70th minute when Grasso nearly scored again; but American senior keeper Thomas Meyers acrobatically saved to keep the game square. Not to be outdone, Keszler made a great save of his own just minutes later.
“We had our chances to win the game, but we gave them too many, too,” Tabatznik said.
When the fulltime whistle sounded, the score was 1-1. Just over five minutes into overtime, an American player was taken down just outside of the box and then Caccavale ended the game in dramatic fashion.
“We gave some bad fouls, not from being too physical, but from not playing well defensively,” Tabatznik said. “I don’t think we played well. We only played well enough to be competing in that game.”
Curtin was joined on the All-Tournament team by senior co-captain, defender, Dan Gargan and sophomore defender Tim Convey.
“If we don’t stretch the field out against those teams we’ll be defending the whole time,” Tabatznik said. “The most important thing is we have got to find ways to keep possession of the ball.”
