Sometimes no matter how well you play, you just can’t seem to come out on top. And so it goes for the Georgetown men’s soccer team (2-4-0, 1-1-0 BE), who dropped a 5-2 decision to visiting St. John’s (4-2-0, 1-1-0 BE) on Sunday, two days after downing rival Syracuse (3-2-0, 0-2-0 BE) 1-0 in double overtime.
“I feel like I sound a little bit like a broken record,” Georgetown Head Coach Brian Wiese said. “I actually felt we were playing well … [We] follow[ed] up a good performance against Syracuse with what I felt was a good enough performance against a St. John’s team.”
The Hoyas got down early, failing to score first for the fifth time in their first six games, after the Red Storm registered two goals in just over five minutes, both off the foot of fifth-year senior defender Patrik Engstrom. Engstrom first scored a ‘look-what-I-found-goal,’ shrugging to the crowd after a direct kick from 20 yards out that he was just trying to put on net, but placed perfectly out of the reach of senior keeper Andrew Keszler just 2:38 in.
Georgetown responded 9:50 into the game as sophomore midfielder Conor Neusel settled the ball on the left side before beating junior goalie Jason Landers to the near post. His second goal of the season cut the St. John’s lead to one, at 2-1, and stemmed the early onslaught of the Red Storm offense.
After sophomore forward Jara Habib took advantage of a missed clear by the Hoya defense and scored a goal in the lower left to notch St. John’s third goal 13:11 in, senior co-captain Ricky Schramm answered right back for the Hoyas. Schramm took a cross off the foot of midfielder Benjamin Jefferson-Dow from the right side and headed it in the direction of the back post from eight yards out at the 28:55 mark.
“We found ourselves down really early,” Neusel said. “But until the end we never really felt they were on top of us. We let in some easy goals, and we just couldn’t get ourselves out of it.”
After going into intermission down 4-2, the Hoyas ground to a halt on offense in the second frame, as their defense continued to sag. They allowed an unassisted goal to first-year forward Ryan Soroka, a former member of the U-17 National Team, who sliced the ball into the goal on his third successive attempt after a save and a shot off the post.
“Both teams had a lot of chances,” St. John’s Head Coach Dave Masur commented. “We were just fortunate that some of the goals went in the back of the net for us.”
With junior defender Richard Diaz out due to an injury sustained in practice last Wednesday and with defenders Sean Bellomy and Len Coleman getting banged up a little in the contest, Georgetown’s defense was porous, allowing St. John’s its greatest offensive output of the season. Even a switch in goal at the half couldn’t stem the Red Storm onslaught, as junior keeper Joe Devine allowed one goal in his third appearance of the season. Despite the loss, the Hoyas refuse to let negativity overtake the team.
“At the end of the day, I still feel that this team will end up comfortably in the NCAA Tournament,” Wiese said. “I feel very strongly that we will be at that level at the end of the year.”
The Hoyas look to continue their drive toward the tournament tomorrow as they go on the road to take on the Villanova Wildcats (3-3-1, 0-2-0 BE) at 12:00 p.m.
