This won’t be a relaxing three-day weekend for the members of the Georgetown men’s soccer team. With just a single day of school behind them, the team boarded a plane early this morning to participate in the Cal State Northridge Tournament in Los Angeles. The Hoyas will open up regular season play against their hosts—who knocked off the University of California 1-0 in an exhibition last week—before taking on Cal State Fullerton on Sunday and boarding the red eye back to D.C.
“It’s going to be a real challenge,” head coach Brian Wiese said of the tournament. “It will be hot as heck in the Valley, and while we don’t know much about either team, from all indications Northridge is a team that will end up being top-25 caliber by the end of the season. It will be a long trip, but it’s important for us to start off on the right foot against two really good teams.”
While the players won’t have more than a handful of syllabi to show for their first week of school, they picked up a critical component in their final exhibition last Sunday against George Mason: confidence. The team rattled off four goals—three from underclassmen—in a 4-0 rout in front of almost 500 fans on Kehoe Field.
“It’s huge for our confidence to pick up four goals in a game,” sophomore midfielder Seth C’deBaca, who scored a pair of goals against George Mason, said. “We connected very well as a team, which is something we struggled with last season.”
C’deBaca was joined by sophomore forward Jose Colchao and junior midfielder Scott Larrabee on the score sheet. The offensive contributions of the two underclassmen are indicative of a young, talented team, and the fact that three of the four goals came from the midfield is a refreshing development for Wiese.
“We want to be a team that gets production from all areas,” he said. “I want goals from midfielders, backs, centerbacks—if we do it right, the only guy on our team who probably shouldn’t be scoring goals is our goalkeeper. For me, that is the sign of a healthy team.”
Offensive production of any sort is a good sign for a team that only managed to score 14 goals during all of last season. The team’s real anchor is its backline, and the Hoya defense did not disappoint, posting a relatively easy shutout and allowing only two shots on goal the whole day.
“Part of me is really happy about what ended up being an easy result, but part of me would’ve liked for it to be a little tighter,” Wiese said. “With the regular season coming up, it is important to get used to close games, but considering our scoring issues last year, it’s just nice to get the goals.”
The team couldn’t have ended the preseason on a more positive note, but no one is taking the outcome for granted.
“We really need to refocus this week,” C’deBaca said. “We can’t get too excited about the win, because it was only an exhibition. Getting wins in our first two regular season games is the most important thing for us right now.”
