The No. 10 Georgetown women’s soccer team (7-0-2, Big East) convincingly disposed of Columbia (3-4-1, Ivy) 4-0 in its final match before conference play opens. Junior midfielder Paula Germino-Watnick ran the show and finished with a goal and and assist, while senior forward Caitlin Farrell, senior midfielder Meghan Shaver, and junior midfielder Carson Nizialek added the other three goals.
“We’ve played much better in games and not scored as many goals,” head coach Dave Nolan said. “[Columbia] gave us as much trouble as anybody has this year. I thought [the scoreline] flattered us a little bit, but it’s a tough game.”
The Hoyas began the match on the front foot with Germino-Watnick already showing flashes of a good game by winning a corner in the seventh minute that led to a scoring chance for Farrell. Three minutes later, Germino-Watnick picked the ball up in the midfield and played an inch-perfect ball over the top to Farrell, who took one touch out of her feet and blasted the ball with her weak foot. Columbia’s senior goalkeeper Sophie Whitehouse got a hand to it, but Farrell’s shot was too strong and flew into the top right corner anyway to give the Hoyas the lead.
The game went into a lull until Germino-Watnick picked up the ball again after a sloppy Columbia turnover. She drew the defenders to her before playing the ball to graduate student forward Kyra Carusa on the left wing. Carusa drove along the end line before cutting the ball back to Germino-Watnick, who scored with the help of a deflection off a Columbia defender. This was Germino-Watnick’s first goal of the season, and she now has a goal and two assists in the past two games after missing the first two to injury.
“I think it took me a little while to get back into it, but now I feel very ready to take on Big East and go from there,” Germino-Watnick said.
The Hoyas finished the first half with a 9-1 shot advantage over the Lions and dominated from the opening whistle, but Columbia came out strong in the second half and put the Hoyas under some early pressure. Georgetown managed to withstand the Columbia onslaught and scored in the 52nd minute. Germino-Watnick was heavily involved again, as her shot was deflected into the path of Shaver, who reacted well to direct her header past Whitehouse.
“Right up until we got the third goal, actually, it was them being far more the aggressor,” Nolan said.
In the 60th minute, senior goalkeeper Arielle Schechtman made a quick reaction save to her right to keep the shutout and the Hoyas struck again in the 64th minute. Nizialek found Farrell on the right wing, and Farrell looked for Carusa with a low cross into the box. Columbia failed to clear its lines, and Nizialek slotted into the bottom left corner to make the score 4-0.
Nolan gave his bench players significant minutes in the latter stages as the Hoyas cruised to the win to finish their non-conference slate undefeated.
“We have to reset our goals now,” Nolan said. “We’re right now probably where we had hoped we would be.”
Georgetown has a week off before traveling to New York to face St. John’s (4-5, Big East) in its Big East opener. For more updates on women’s soccer and the remainder of fall sports at Georgetown, follow @GUVoiceSports on Twitter.
