Not many soccer teams can say they had so many chances on net in a game that they actually broke the goal. But now the Hoyas men’s team can. With 14 minutes left in the second half of Georgetown’s game against James Madison, a shot from a gray shirt dislodged the goal from its rigging.
This excuse for a water break on a hot Sunday afternoon summed up the Hoyas’ afternoon perfectly. Despite breaking down the James Madison defense, breaking any chances of control the Dukes tried to exert on the game, and breaking quickly with the ball any chance they got, the Hoyas did not find it easy to break onto the scoreboard.
“We got into a really good rhythm. We had the ball a lot. … The reality is that we had the ball for so long, and they defended for so long. That really runs out a lot of legs. We told the guys to be patient and keep the tempo high. The spaces would come,” said Head Coach Brian Wiese.
Wiese was correct in saying the space would come. However, it didn’t appear until extra time when a surprise sub-in junior defender Jared Rist found sophomore forward Brandon Allen in the box, and he finally buried the ball in the back of the net to give the Hoyas the 1-0 lead.
When asked about his goal, Allen said, “Coach made a sub, Rist on for Josh Turnley. His first play he threw it on for me, I spin the guy, cut another player and then send it back post with my right foot.”
The Hoyas started the game brightly, dictating the flow and pace of the contest. Senior forward Steve Neumann and Allen combined well with junior midfielder Austin Martz.
Neumann and Allen worked hard to find space, but it was freshman midfielder Bakie Goodman who excited most in what was otherwise a quiet first half.
“The coaches put me out wide to start, but they let me roam around out wide and in the gaps in the middle because what they want me to do is pick the ball up in the middle and go at the defense and attack.” Goodman said,“That’s why you see me all over the place in there.”
The Hoyas stepped their intensity up right from the outset of the second half. Freshman forward Alex Muyl had an excellent chance to put the Hoyas in front in the 50, but, after a flurry of desparate kicks and saves, the ball ended up sailing over the net. The Dukes registered their first chance of the game in the 76th minute when Georgetown keeper Tomas Gomez was called into action for a close range save.
Neither the Hoyas nor the Dukes could find a winner, so the match headed into extra time. In the 95th minute, Coach Wiese subbed Jared Rist into the game, a player who hasn’t seen much game time over his Georgetown career. Rist turned out to be the missing link the Hoyas were seeking, as he set Allen up for the goal that would end the contest. The game finished 1-0, the Hoyas walking away triumphant.
Wiese will have a few issues to address with his team in terms of capitalizing on chances but was ultimately happy with how Sunday’s game turned out.
“JMU didn’t make it easy. They ended up sitting deeper and deeper and the spaces got tighter and tighter,” he said. “It got harder as the game went on. We needed to be taking more chances. … I thought the guys had a really good level of concentration, were disciplined, and got the result.”
