If taking the lead hasn’t helped the Georgetown men’s soccer team this season, then falling behind has.
After a series of strong starts that ended in losses, the Hoyas overcame a deficit to put away West Virginia 2-1 Wednesday afternoon on North Kehoe Field for its first Big East win.
After losses to conference opponents No. 11 St. John’s and No. 23 Notre Dame, Georgetown (5-5-0) has grabbed an important win to raise its Big East record to 1-2-0.
With the win over the Mountaineers (5-4-0), the Hoyas move back to .500 and also post consecutive wins for the first time since the beginning of the year.
“We deserved the win. We kept focus and played hard,” Head Coach Keith Tabatznik said.
But a win seemed hard to come by at first as West Virginia held the lead throughout the first half.
The opening goal came off a stolen pass that the Mountaineers took advantage of to put the ball away. Sophomore forward Jarrod Smith took a cross from the top of the box from teammate and freshman midfielder Andrew Wright and sent it past the Hoya goalkeeper in the 14th minute.
Despite being outshot 10-9 by Georgetown, West Virginia kept the 1-0 margin throughout the first half.
“We gave the ball away in the midfield and missed a routine tackle,” Tabatznik said about the goal. “We’re giving away easy chances. We have to eliminate those.”
The Hoyas kept up the intensity into the second half, continually attacking the opposing goal. The breakthrough came when junior forward Kaiser Chowdhry headed a free kick into the post, which sophomore forward Ricky Schramm picked up and placed in the goal to tie the score in the 63rd minute.
After several other strong chances on both sides, the Hoyas came up with the game-winner in the 85th minute to avoid overtime. Chowdhry scored on a one-timer off senior midfielder Brent Plumley’s free kick to seal the victory 2-1.
“We simply needed to pick up the intensity tremendously,” Tabatznik said. “We couldn’t rely on some people doing it and some people not. That’s what happened in second half.”
The game was offensively-centered as Georgetown made 20 shots while West Virginia came up with 16. Schramm and junior forward Danny McAnally led the Hoya offense with four shots apiece with Smith led the game with five shots for the Mountaineers. Hoya sophomore goalkeeper Andrew Keszler came up with seven saves over 90 minutes while Mountaineer sophomore goalkeeper Nick Noble had five saves before being pulled in the last three minutes of play.
It was also an unusually physical matchup, especially from West Virginia, which committed 17 fouls to Georgetown’s five. The visitors were also booked for three yellow cards in the second half.
“There are no secrets,” Tabatznik said about the key to the victory. “The best parts were when we moved ball around quickly and they’re going to keep on having to do that.”
The Hoyas leave the Hilltop for three consecutive games, starting with a showdown against the Syracuse Orange on Sunday at 1 p.m. After facing Providence and Rutgers on the road, Georgetown returns to North Kehoe to take on Villanova on October 16 in the heart of the Big East season. After a crucial win, the Hoyas will need to keep the momentum as the Big East season continues to unfold.
“We’ll find out what happens on Sunday,” Tabatznik said. “Hopefully the team found out that it has to come to play. It’s usually the team that plays with higher intensity for longer that ends up winning in the Big East.”
