Anyone who was lucky enough to make it up to North Kehoe Field this past weekend witnessed two victorious showings by the Georgetown men’s soccer team.
The Hoyas defeated Villanova (4-4-0 overall, 3-1-0 BE) 2-0 and Rutgers (2-6-0 overall, 1-3-0 BE) 3-2. The team’s powerful performance, along with their 3-0 victory over Manhattan yesterday afternoon, gave them a 7-2-0 record overall, and earned them a tie at No. 25 in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America/adidas poll. At 3-1-0 in conference play, Georgetown also ranks first in the Big East’s Blue Division.
Georgetown began their action-packed weekend on Friday against Villanova in what started as a seesaw battle. The stalemate ended with just four minutes left in the first half, when lightning struck for the Hoyas in the form of senior forward Ben Jefferson-Dow. Jefferson-Dow made an acrobatic play on a service pass from first year defender Harri Halonen as he scissor-kicked it through the Wildcat defense and past diving sophomore keeper Jason Friel for the Hoyas’ first goal.
The shot sent a spark through the crowd as the Hoya crowd erupted in applause and cheers with Jefferson-Dow running over to receive his well-earned congratulations. “I just wished,” said Jefferson-Dow of his goal. “And it just felt perfect.”
Georgetown added to its lead in the second half when first-year forward Richard Frank scored in the 61st minute. As a Wildcat defender chased the ball towards their box, Frank surged past him to the ball, beat the keeper and sent the ball streaking into the goal from the endline.
With the Hoya offense providing two goals, the defense did its part by turning out the lights on Villanova’s attack. The Hoya defense shut out all of Villanova’s seven shots on goal and junior goalkeeper Andrew Keszler recorded five saves, while the back line added two more.
“It was a total team effort today,” senior defender Jeff Curtin said. “We had a shutout, so we’re doing something right.”
“We played a team that plays pretty direct,” coach Keith Tabatznik added. “Our back line had to be very sharp and in really good defensive position. They did a great job while keeping really good concentration.”
The Hoyas continued their success and started off on the right foot against Rutgers on Sunday. This was the foot of junior forward Ricky Schramm. After making a skillful take-away near midfield, junior defender Tim Convey passed the ball ahead to Schramm who put it away for a 1-0 lead in just the fourth minute.
Rutgers controlled much of the second half, making the Hoyas look as if their batteries had not completely recharged from Friday’s dominating shutout. The Scarlet Knights received two goals from first year forward Bojan Skoric. One came at the 62nd minute mark while the other put Rutgers up 2-1 in the 79th minute. With the goals, Georgetown’s hopes for a 2-0 weekend in conference play seemed to be thrown into the fire as the Hoyas struggled to put enough urgency in their effort to come back.
With just five minutes to play, however, Curtin would provide a spark to the Hoya offense, sending a bicycle-kick from the endline into a group of players in front of the goal. Senior midfielder Danny McAnally came up with the ball and sent a shot into the net to tie the game with his first goal of the season.
McAnally’s goal revamped the Georgetown team as it went into overtime. In only the eighth minute of overtime, Schramm put away the game winner on an assist by Frank.
“The goal by Danny was the big goal,” said Schramm after the game. “Once we went into overtime we all had the confidence that we could put it away.”
For Rutgers this was their second game in a row in which they gave up a lead, and the victory, late in the game. “I thought for 90 minutes we were the better team,” said Rutgers coach Bob Reasso. “It’s a devastating loss.”
Two Hoyas received special recognition for their play. Schramm was named Big East Offensive Player of the Week for the fourth time in his career and Frank earned Big East Rookie of the Week honors for the first time.
These two conference games weighed heavily on the Hoyas’ record. Getting wins is necessary for Georgetown if they hope to play in the postseason and avoiding a tie is even more important. “These are the games we have to win,” Jefferson-Dow said. “We can’t tie. We can’t lose.”
