Soccer matches are not usually decided in the final minutes of play, but the Georgetown men’s soccer team (3-5-0, 2-2-0 BE) played two such contests over the weekend as they split a pair of Big East road games. The Hoyas suffered a 1-0 loss to Rutgers (3-5-0, 1-3-0 BE) on Sunday after downing Villanova (4-5-1, 0-4-0 BE) 1-0 on Friday.
On Friday, Georgetown prevailed over Villanova when senior forward Ricky Schramm scored the only goal with three minutes remaining in the match. Junior goalkeeper Joe Devine made a career high seven saves en route to his third career shutout.
The Scarlet Knights of Rutgers jumped on the Hoyas from the opening whistle, generating a number of scoring chances on offense. Rutgers took eight shots in the first half while Georgetown could only muster one. Devine and the Hoya backline held strong, however, and did not allow a goal in the first half.
“I think I did pretty well, but it obviously wasn’t perfect,” Devine said. “Rutgers had 24 shots but not all of them were great chances. We did a pretty good job of shutting down the back.”
The Hoya offense did have several scoring chances in the second half but could not finish. Just a few minutes into the half, Schramm was inches from reaching a Corey Zeller cross inside the six-yard box. Junior forward Mike Glaccum had two shots in the final four minutes as a result of crosses by sophomore forward Richard Frank. The first, with 3:30 remaining in the game, was turned aside by a Rutgers defender, and Rutgers sophomore goalkeeper Dylan Hastings saved the second, in the final seconds before overtime.
Sunday’s match was Hastings’ first career start, and the Hoyas made it easy on him, taking five shots and only putting two on goal the entire game.
“We were too easily taken out of our style of play,” Schramm said of the Hoyas’ offensive struggles. “It was a different game than we were used to. At the end of the day, we were just unlucky.”
The Scarlet Knights continued their assault in the second half. Their best chance came when Adam Sternberger fired a shot, but Devine was up to the task. Devine made six saves on the day, but Rutgers striker Chris Moore proved to be too much in the first overtime period. After over an hour and a half of scoreless soccer, Moore’s 30-yard unassisted shot beat Devine and ended a tough game for the Hoyas.
“It was a ball from about 25 yards out that was just rolling, and the guy took a strike, put some velocity on it and beat me to the upper right,” Devine said of overtime goal he gave up. “I was pretty disappointed.”
“It was really an unsaveable shot,” Georgetown Head Coach Brian Wiese added.
The Hoyas will hit the pitch again on Saturday, Sept. 23rd when they play host to the UConn Huskies (3-2-2, 3-0-1 BE) on North Kehoe Field at 1 p.m.
“The hard part is getting the guys to look beyond the record,” Wiese said. “We’re 3-5, but only two of those games have been at home, and that’s why these two games this weekend are so big for us … [and] they’re two games I fully expect to win.”
