For the first time this season, Georgetown men’s soccer (5-3-3, 2-1-0 BIG EAST) entered a match as the underdog, having underperformed relative to the No. 21 Providence Friars (6-3-2, 1-1-1 BIG EAST), but a scintillating second half attacking performance propelled Georgetown to a 3-0 victory—and left no doubts about the Hoyas’s superiority.
With “spooky season” officially underway, Providence were haunted once again by their biggest nightmare: Graduate forward Marlon Tabora. In the second round of the 2021 College Cup, Tabora derailed the Friars’ promising season with a hat trick and an assist in a stellar 4-1 victory, and on Friday, he drew first blood for the Hoyas with a deflected goal after cutting past several defenders on his dangerous left foot.
Junior midfielder Zach Zengue and sophomore midfielder Matthew Van Horn provided the other two goals, and with six different Hoyas combining for nine shots on target, it’s a wonder Providence did not lose by more. The connection between the midfield and front three was at its best, with senior midfielder Joe Buck’s long balls to 6-4 freshman forward Mitchell Baker unlocking the Friars’ defense time and time again.
In the first half, both teams played a pretty even game, with Providence even threatening to score on a few occasions. Georgetown nearly took the lead in the opening minutes, with the Friars clearing several dangerous corner kicks following Providence keeper Lukas Burns’s big one-on-one save against Baker. After that, they could not generate anything of note until the last five minutes before halftime, with Zengue and sophomore midfielder Mateo Ponce Ocampo flashing shots just outside the frame of the goal. On Providence’s end, a misplaced pass by Hoyas keeper Tenzing Manske in the 8th minute went directly to the feet of Friars junior forward Bruno Rosa in the box, who fortunately dragged his shot wide.
Providence came closest to scoring in the 50th minute, with graduate midfielder Luis Garcia striking just outside of the right post on a left-footed shot from just outside the top right corner of the box. From then on, the game changed completely. An especially rowdy student section parked right behind Lukas Burns’ goal, which brought the most noise Shaw Field has witnessed this season, gave the home side the energy they needed to create a landslide of unstoppable attacking momentum.
It started with Georgetown winning the midfield, as junior Max Viera and senior captain Blaine Mabie put in several crunching tackles in an emphatic extra effort to win the ball, and Buck rebounded from some ugly turnovers in the first half to play a myriad of key passes. Then the shots began to fly in, with Zengue and Mabie sending screamers off target but signaling impending doom for the Friars.
In the 63rd minute, Zengue laid the ball off to Tabora at the top of the box and he did the rest, beating Burns with his left foot off a deflection into the left side of the goal to open the floodgates. Less than a minute later, Buck played a long through ball to Baker, who cut back inside to bide time before threading an inch-perfect pass into the stride of Zengue for an easy finish.
In the 73rd minute, the Hoyas went up 3-0 through another beautiful team goal. Buck lofted a gorgeous pass across the box to Howard on the left wing, who played it to Viera. Viera powered past several defenders to curl a low shot toward the right post. Burns got his fingertips on it, but the rebound fell kindly for an onrushing Van Horn to tap it in. Still buoyed by an elated crowd, the Hoyas continued to bombard Burns’s goal until the final whistle, with Baker and Buck just missing powerful shots that could have extended the score even further.
Hoyas coach Brian Wiese was quite satisfied with his team’s performance. In a post-game interview with Georgetown athletics, he said that, against “a really good team,” they “executed a lot of things really well today, and…didn’t panic about not capitalizing on the first-half chances.” Tabora, Zengue, and Baker have not played simultaneously very much this season, but that might change in the future drawing from the potency of their free-flowing chemistry. Baker’s strong, precise hold-up play sucked in Providence’s center backs, giving creative attackers like Zengue and Tabora the space they needed to produce magical moments.
Even with the emphatic margin of victory, the Hoyas still need to work on finishing chances. Regardless, if they continue to play like this, very few teams in the country will be able to stop them. This team seems to have woken up following last weekend’s loss to Akron, ready to dominate the BIG EAST regular season once more. As diehard Hoya soccer fans like to say, “Shawtober” is well and truly upon us, and it’s the most glorious time of the year.
Georgetown men’s soccer will travel for their last non-conference game against UMBC (4-4-3, 1-0-1 America East) at 7:00 PM in Baltimore, Md. this Tuesday, October 8. For continued coverage and updates on Georgetown sports, follow @GUVoiceSports on X, formerly known as Twitter.
