As boisterous chants of “We got our trophy back!” rang out, the Georgetown men’s soccer team walked off the pitch at Reeves Field disappointed, but not for lack of effort. Falling to host American University (2-0-0) last Sunday, the Hoyas (1-1-0) ended the day with a 2-1 loss as the Eagles snatched the D.C. College Cup title from its perch on the Hilltop.
“I think our guys showed a huge amount of heart,” Georgetown Head Coach Brian Wiese said. “They kept pushing, but today it fell the other side of it. We gave them [American] a second goal and didn’t give ourselves enough time to come back.”
American jumped out to a 1-0 lead at the 17:02 mark on a diving header from sophomore forward Justin Turco. Turco had entered the game less than a minute earlier and perfectly positioned himself in the box, sliding in behind the defense and redirecting a cross from the left side off the foot of senior midfielder Garth Juckem and past diving Hoya keeper, senior Andrew Keszler.
Going into the half scoreless and trailing their opponent was not a new feeling for the Hoyas. On Friday, against George Washington (1-1-0), Georgetown trailed 2-0 at intermission as the Colonials looked to ruin Wiese’s coaching debut.
“Coach was saying we can’t let the scoreline affect how we go about our second half,” Keszler said. “You can’t look at that 2-0 score and have that be the game. We could easily put in three goals against these guys.”
In fact, the Hoyas would pour in five as they responded quickly coming out of the half, getting on the board less than three minutes in, as senior forward Ricky Schramm collected a pass from sophomore forward Richard Frank, settled, spun and buried the ball in the bottom left corner of the net. Schramm would collect another goal for the ninth multi-goal game of his career, as the Hoyas would win 5-2. Their five second-half goals were the most for Georgetown in a half since Sept. 25, 2004, when they erupted for seven second-half goals in an 8-1 victory over Mount St. Mary’s.
And against a familiar foe, Georgetown was similarly able to battle back against American in the final frame. Both teams have competed in every championship of the D.C. College Cup since its inception in 2001, with American now capturing all but two of the titles.
“Every year it’s a battle and there are a good amount of people in the stands,” Schramm said of the yearly tussle. “It’s normally the marquee game of the tournament. It’s always a fight and a very emotional game.”
Georgetown finally broke through on American junior goalie Chris Sedlak just over 67 minutes into the match. Senior defender Tim Convey flipped the ball up and over the Eagles’ back line to Grasso who buried a right-footed shot in the bottom left corner to tie the game at 1-1. Sedlak ended up with nine saves, matching his career high.
After Keszler made a pair of diving saves back-to-back at the 15:28 mark on shots by last year’s Patriot League Freshman of the Year, defender Philip Purdy, and senior midfielder Lucas Dowiak, the Hoyas said they felt they had the momentum of the game swinging in their favor.
“After you get the equalizer you feel you can capitalize on the momentum,” Wiese said. “I felt the longer the game went the better the chance we had at winning because we will never play for overtime. I never want to have a team that plays for a tie.”
In a physical game that featured 25 fouls and five yellow cards, it was an illegal touch by Convey just outside the box that ended Georgetown’s hopes of defending their crown. Tournament MVP, senior forward Sal Caccavale deposited a free kick with 2:07 remaining in the top right corner of the goal over the Hoya wall and out of the grasp of Keszler to claim the 2006 Craig Tartasky Trophy for the Eagles. American claimed the title in 2004 on the exact same scenario, except in overtime, for a 2-1 victory over the Hoyas off the foot of Caccavale.
“When the foul got called, everyone on the team said ‘Sal is going to score’ because everyone has confidence that he can hit that,” American Head Coach Todd West said.
The Hoyas will travel to Omaha, Neb. this weekend where they will participate in the Ameritas Classic on Friday and Sunday.
