The Georgetown men’s soccer team (1-4-0, Big East) finally broke their duck with a 1-0 home victory against the UConn Huskies (3-2-0, AAC). Brett Campbell scored his first goal of the year in the 41st minute for the Hoyas.
A stiflingly hot day saw both teams come out conservatively with Georgetown content to sit back and allow UConn’s back line time and space on the ball. As UConn went forward, Georgetown’s defense tightened and allowed UConn to take speculative shots from distance. The Huskies found their way through up the right side once and the shot rattled the underside of the crossbar but stayed out.
For much of the first half, Georgetown played on the break. Junior forward Zach Knudson, starting in place of the injured freshman forward Achara, was the focal point for most of the Hoyas offensive output in the opening period. Knudson was able to hold off defenders and allow the midfielders to advance and be involved in the attacking third.
“I think that’s the best he’s played all year,” said Head Coach Brian Wiese. “He’s very, very strong. I think defenders have a hard time with his center of gravity and his strength, and when he gets a hold of (the ball), it’s very, very hard for defenders to take it from him.”
The goal did not come, however, from Knudson’s hold up play. A fairly innocuous pass was played back to UConn’s redshirt junior goalkeeper Zach Levene. Georgetown’s senior forward Brett Campbell slowly applied pressure on Levene and stuck out his foot to block Levene’s attempted clearance. The ball rolled into the empty net for Campbell’s first goal and Georgetown’s first lead of the season.
“I think it’s very important,” reflected Campbell after the game. “It’s good to see the ball go in the net.”
Georgetown led 1-0 at halftime, and Wiese made adjustments to help cement that position for the rest of the game. A more energetic Georgetown posed more of an offensive threat, forcing five saves from Levene in the second half compared to one save in the first.
Campbell explains, “We wanted to give them the ball a little bit in the first half, and then in the second half change our pressure to put them more under pressure, and I think it worked because they felt like they had a lot less time in the second half, so you saw a lot more turnovers out of the back. And with a hot day like this it’s important they don’t just keep the ball the whole time.”
Senior defender PJ Koscher forced a point blank save on a header from six yards, and Campbell had a breakaway opportunity in the final minute that Levene did well to parry wide. Yet for all his brilliance in the second half, it was Levene’s hesitation that gave Georgetown a fortuitous, but deserved victory.
The first thirty-five minutes were very different from the last ten. The Hoyas had the look of a team that had been on the end of a series of unfortunate late goals that was determined to avoid conceding another at all costs (which was, in fact, the case) and instinctually collapsed back into their defensive half, clearing any ball that came near. Campbell’s golden opportunity at the death came after ten minutes of “anywhere will do” defending during which UConn had the ball nearly the whole time and lumped long balls towards the forwards, hoping for a kind bounce. For the first time this year, the ball bounced Georgetown’s way.
“When you’ve had the start of a season we’ve had, you’re kind of like ‘That’s probably how the first win’s going to be’” remarked Wiese. “It’s going to feel really weird, and for all the real chances you had… the one you get is the blocked clearance that rolls into an open net. But that’s the sport. That’s what happens.”
It was nowhere close to the sort of game that Shaw field saw last year, but Georgetown no longer has an “oh-and” team. Wiese’s main message from this game is brutally simple: “At the end of the day, ten years from now, they don’t look at how well you played or anything else. They look at your record.” Georgetown’s is now 1-4.
The Hoyas look at build on this result on Tuesday, September 13 at 7 p.m. They visit William and Mary (4-1-0, CAA).
