The beautiful weather on Homecoming Saturday seemed perfect for the occasion, as the No. 12 Georgetown men’s soccer team (7-2-2, 3-0-0 Big East) defeated the No. 21 Butler Bulldogs (6-2-3, 2-1-0 Big East) by a score of 2-0. Goals by Georgetown senior attacker Brandon Allen and Georgetown senior defenseman Cole Seiler propelled the Hoyas to victory.
For the Georgetown defense, the game was a tale of two halves. The Bulldogs generated six shots in the first period, four of which were saved by Georgetown freshman goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski. Another hit the inside of the right post while the score was still gridlocked at 0-0.
Georgetown head coach Brian Wiese was well aware of the first-half danger. “We needed to be sharper in a lot of things, we were in some dangerous spots,” said Wiese. “We had some bad turnovers and relied on Joshua Yaro and Cole Seiler to put out a few fires.”
Wiese instructed the team on how to defend the Butler offense during the halftime intermission. The Hoyas got the message and delivered in the second half. Butler was able to generate just two shots, neither of which were on goal.
“Their transition is where they were most dangerous and we were most susceptible. Once we were able get (Christopher) Lema and Arun (Basuljevic) on the same page, and drop one of our forwards deeper, I think we handled that transition a lot better,” remarked Seiler.
The shutout marks the team’s third straight, something Coach Wiese was pleased with.
“These things become habits,” Wiese said. “You talk about winning or losing, but not conceding goals is just as much a habit. Hopefully we can continue that.”
Despite the initial defensive struggles, the Georgetown offense was in great form for much of the game. The team generated 23 total shots in the game, with 14 being on target. The consistent onslaught resulted in a 27th minute goal by Allen, who put the ball in off of a beautiful cross by Georgetown junior attacker Alex Muyl.
“The build up was very efficient, and something we talked about in the week leading up to the game. It was nice to see that executed well,” remarked Wiese.
The Hoyas were particularly strong on corner kicks and set pieces. The team was consistently able to create dangerous opportunities from these chances. The corner kick success reached its climax when Georgetown senior defenseman Cole Seiler scored his first goal of the season off of a corner kick taken by Georgetown sophomore midfielder Arun Basuljevic.
“It feels great,” said Seiler. “I set some personal goals and this is just one step closer to achieving that.”
The goal was the end product of a concerted effort by Wiese and the team to work on corner kicks in practice this past week.
“We spent some more time this week on them (corner kicks),” said Wise. We saw some things in the Butler team that we thought we could take advantage of and it actually ended up working out. We’ll take goals any way we can get them.”
This victory marks the team’s eighth straight game without a loss. During the stretch, the team has gone 7-0-1, with the only draw coming against VCU on the road in double overtime. The Hoyas will look to continue this success when they take on Marquette on Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. on Shaw Field.
