In a rainy Saturday afternoon contest at Shaw Field, the Georgetown men’s soccer team (2-2-1, Big East) defeated Radford (3-1-1, Big South) by a final score of 5-2. The Hoyas were led by two goals apiece from junior forward Alex Muyl and senior Brandon Allen, whose clinical finishing helped spark the Blue and Gray to their second straight win.
“I think the difference between today and some of the other games was that we were much more clinical in our finishing,” Head Coach Brian Wiese said. “I thought Alex Muyl and Brandon Allen were different class today in terms of their understanding of each other and what we’re doing.”
As a storm ascended upon the Hilltop just in time for kickoff, it was the Hoyas who had the better of the possession early on in the contest. Though Radford threatened in the opening minutes with several counterattacks that exploited Georgetown miscues, the Blue and Gray opened the scoring in the 13th minute when Allen knifed through the defenders before guiding a left footed effort past Radford sophomore keeper Aitor Pouseu Blanco.
Just forty-six seconds later, a Radford defender’s late tackle in the penalty box forced the referee’s whistle, awarding Georgetown an opportunity to extend their lead. Allen stepped up and casually slotted home his second goal of the game, helping the Hoyas open up a two-goal advantage just 14 minutes into the game. As the half progressed, Georgetown’s sophomore midfield combo of Arun Basuljevic and Christopher Lema helped the Hoyas dominate the possession game with nifty combinations and adept field vision.
As the drizzle turned into a downpour midway through the first frame, a combination between senior David Witkoff and Basuljevic opened space for Muyl in the box, whose strike to the far post gave Georgetown its largest advantage of the season at 3-0.
Play was temporarily suspended in the 37th minute because of thunder warnings in the area, but after a 30-minute delay, both teams returned to Shaw Field in order to finish the first half.
Less than a minute after play had resumed, a handball in the Georgetown penalty area allowed Radford senior defender Jamie Summers to curl in his team’s first goal of the contest. Just two minutes later, however, the Hoyas answered with another goal when sophomore midfielder Declan McCabe slotted home his first goal of the young season.
The Hoyas carried a 4-1 advantage into the break, already having scored more goals in the 45-minute period than they had in the season’s first four games combined. It took only seven minutes into the second half for the Hoyas to strike again, when sophomore midfield Matthew Ledder assisted Muyl’s second goal of the game, helping the Hoyas to a 5-1 lead.
The two teams traded opportunities in the second half, but neither team found the net until Radford junior forward Garland Smith maneuvered his way through the Hoya defense and slotted a low shot into the left corner of the Georgetown net with ten seconds left in the game. Smith’s brace was purely academic, however, as the Hoyas handed the Highlanders their first loss of the season and registered their second consecutive victory at Shaw Field.
Muyl’s two goals were the first two that he’s registered this season, and he believes that the team’s offensive rhythm is a credit to their vigor and persistence in the attacking third.
“I think after starting the season not scoring so many goals in the first few games, we were still doing the right things,” Muyl said. “We’ve kept a good mentality and it showed today. We put the ball in the back of the net and it’s a good start for the goal scoring season.”
The Hoyas will now set their sights on one of the most difficult stretches in the team’s schedule: one that will feature the Blue and Gray playing four games in ten days. The Hoyas will hit the road to play VCU and West Virginia before returning home to host Maryland and Providence at Shaw Field. The stretch will test Georgetown’s depth and health, as the team has had a difficult time dealing with injuries early on in their 2015 campaign.
“This game, in a funny way is the start of maybe the hardest stretch of soccer for us in terms of games and travel,” Coach Wiese said. “These games are ones where you have almost no times for adjustments in between, and that’s the hard part. Any guys carrying injuries have no time to recover. The one game this weekend was nice though, and hopefully it slingshots us into the two week stretch coming for us.”
The Hoyas will now travel to Richmond, Va., to take on VCU (1-4-0, Atlantic 10) on Thursday night. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. ET.
