The Georgetown men’s soccer team (10-5-4, 5-4-1 Big East) exited the Big East tournament last night after they fell to St. John’s (11-6-2, 5-5-0 Big East) in Queens, N.Y., falling 2-1 to the third-seeded Red Storm.
St. John’s goals in the seventh and 49th minutes were enough to end the Blue and Gray’s hopes to advance. St. John’s was the No. 3 seed from the Big East Red Division, while Georgetown was the No. 6 seed from the Blue Division.
The Red Storm started out the season on a tear, winning seven of their first 10 games. They had struggled of late, however, dropping two consecutive contests to Rutgers and Cincinnati.
“The biggest story always when you play St. John’s is how you handle their field,” Head Coach BrianWiese said. “The fans are right on top of you, they get a big crowd. It’s a bouncy, hard field to play on.”
The Red Storm pounced on the Hoyas right from the kickoff as sophomore midfielder Jimmy Mulligan knocked in a shot to grab the lead only seven minutes into the contest. St. John’s dominated play for the rest of the first half, outshooting Georgetown, 7-2, and won the corner kick count, 3-1.
Sophomore midfielder Steve Neumann leads the Big East in assists and is second in goals.
Even with the Red Storm’s pressure, the Blue and Gray equalized in the 38th minute to make the score 1-1. Georgetown was awarded a penalty kick and junior midfielder Ian Christianson converted.
Returning from the intermission, the Red Storm once again struck quickly. St. John’s junior midfielder Jack Bennett played the ball to freshman defender Tim Parker, who scored, giving the Johnnies a 2-1 advantage.
The Hoyas worked to level the score for the rest of the second half. But despite recording more shots (8-4) and corners (3-1) than St. John’s in the second half, they could not manage another goal.
Georgetown, which was ranked in the top 25 for much of the season, hopes to gain an at-large bid the NCAA tournament after the early conference tournament loss.
