Ever since the Georgetown men’s soccer team began its four-game losing streak, Head Coach Keith Tabatznik has been insisting that the Hoyas need to get back to fundamentals and “shut out a team 1-0 like we were doing at the beginning of the season.”
That was exactly what Georgetown did on Saturday, defeating Big East rival Notre Dame 1-0 on North Kehoe Field in a game that looked much like the Hoyas’ opening victories at home over Howard and American.
“We got the lead and we held on to the lead against a team that puts on a lot of pressure, so it was very similar to American in that sense,” Tabatznik said. “I think against American we had a better first half and [today] we were the better team in the first half and for sure we deserved to be up 1-0.”
With the win the Hoyas (8-6-0, 4-4-0 Big East) snapped their four-game slide and pulled back to .500 in the conference. The Irish (7-5-2, 3-4-1) dipped back below .500 in the Big East with the loss, and have won just one of their last four overall.
With the result, Georgetown moves into fourth place in the Big East blue division, while Notre Dame falls to fifth. The victory gives Georgetown 12 points in conference play, just two fewer than division leader Seton Hall.
“Since the loss on Tuesday to Maryland,” Tabatznik said, “we talked about the fact that we could finish anywhere from first to eighth in the Big East [blue division] and we basically look at it as a four-game [season] right now.”
In three of their last four games, the Hoyas have allowed a goal within the first five minutes of play. After Notre Dame’s opening kickoff, it looked like Georgetown might fall victim to an early score again. The Irish solidly controlled the ball in their offensive third for the first two minutes, but the Hoyas were able to keep the Irish from getting any good looks and the threat passed. From there the game settled, and neither team was able to get off any shots in the first 10 minutes.
In the 29th minute Notre Dame got the first good scoring opportunity of the afternoon when sophomore forward Joe Lapira was awarded a one-on-one with Georgetown junior keeper Andrew Keszler. Lapira got free near midfield and took it down the left side of the field, but Keszler came off the line and collected the ball near the top of the box to get a huge save for Georgetown.
“One-on-one, the attacking player usually has the advantage,” Keszler said, “and you just have to make yourself as big as possible to try and make the save.”
Just moments later Georgetown responded with a scoring chance of its own. Junior midfielder Daniel Grasso intercepted a pass from a Notre Dame defender outside the 18-yard box and after a few dribbles took a hard, low shot that snuck past diving Irish junior keeper Chris Cahill. Grasso’s third goal of the season put the Hoyas up 1-0, where the score would remain for the rest of the day.
“I beat one guy and I had no other option other than to shoot it,” Grasso said of his goal. “I don’t know if the goalie maybe should have had it, but . it was a good goal.”
In the second half the Irish made a strong push to tie the game, but could not find the back of the net. With the wind at their backs, the Irish kept the ball mostly in Georgetown’s half of the field and took 14 shots in the second half, including one that went off the crossbar. At another point, a direct kick just outside the 18-yard box – originating from a foul that might have warranted a penalty kick – was saved by Keszler, who stopped five shots on the day and, in the end, allowed no goals.
“Getting the shutout’s huge,” junior defender Tim Convey said. “Obviously without our goalie there, Keszler, they score four goals. . He’s pretty amazing.”
Notre Dame dominated in every offensive category on Saturday, taking 18 shots to Georgetown’s 11 and seven corner kicks to Georgetown’s one. The Irish also dominated time of possession, but were unable to capitalize on the chances they had as the Hoyas prevented the Irish from getting open looks.
“I thought we controlled large parts of the game,” Notre Dame Head Coach Bobby Clark said, “[but] obviously at the end of the day Georgetown did more with less time they had on the ball than we did with all the time. . We had a lot of the ball, but they didn’t allow us a lot of easy chances.”
Injuries have plagued the Hoyas in recent weeks, and they continued to play an important role in Saturday’s match. Senior captain Jeff Curtin was shifted from defense to midfield for the game, and played only limited minutes because of a groin injury. Keszler, who sustained an ankle injury in the game at West Virginia, played the entire match to get his third shutout of the year, but did not take goal kicks in the second half. Senior midfielders Ben Jefferson-Dow and Kevin Sindelar both also played through injuries, with Sindelar shifting to defense for the game to cover for Curtin.
“Injuries are still a significant issue right now,” Tabatznik said. “We have a number of guys gutting it out and playing hurt.”
There will be no rest for the banged-up Hoyas, however, as the team will play host to Creighton tomorrow afternoon in the final game of a three-game homestand. Creighton (7-2-3, 3-0-0 Missouri Valley), who has been nationally ranked for much of the season, is coming off a 3-2 win over Bradley University and three wins in a row overall. This will be the Hoyas’ final non-conference matchup before the team closes out the year with three games in Big East play.
“Getting a little bit of confidence back is good,” Tabatznik said. “Creighton is a very difficult type of team to play. They put you under a lot of pressure and I think it’s going to be a good game for us to hopefully prove to ourselves that we can play 90 minutes under that sort of pressure.”
Kickoff tomorrow is set for 3 p.m. on North Kehoe.
