Hoya Staff Writer Friday, September 1, 2006 Lindsay Anderson/The Hoya

Defending a tournament title is never easy. In the D.C. College Cup men’s soccer tournament, it is nearly impossible. In the six-year history of the tournament, only the American University Eagles have ever won the Craig Tartasky Trophy twice in a row, and that was in 2001-02. The Hoyas hoped to change that last weekend, but history prevailed and the Cup again changed hands, returning to the host Eagles to chants of, “We got our trophy back.” In the first game of the tournament last Friday, Georgetown (1-1-0) took on George Washington (1-1-0) and earned new Head Coach Brian Wiese his first victory as a Hoya with a 5-2, come-from-behind win. In a game where the two halves could not have been two different games, the Hoyas found themselves in an early hole after Colonial freshman midfielder Luke Wildy scored from the center circle in the 26th minute. On a hard shot with lots of movement, the ball slipped between the crossbar and the hands of Georgetown senior keeper Andrew Keszler. “I had a good read on the ball, got a good jump on it and thought I was there, then last minute [the ball moved],” Keszler said. “It was kind of unfortunate. It was an unlucky goal to start off the game.” While the Hoyas were still recovering from the first goal, the Colonials again took advantage and Wildy slipped another shot past Keszler in the 31st minute. On his second collegiate goal, Wildy received a long pass near the 18-yard box and then chipped it over Keszler’s head as he came off the line for an untouched tally. Quickly, it was 2-0 Colonials, a lead that GWU took into halftime. “To be fair, we gifted them two goals and you can’t do that in soccer and get away with it very often,” Wiese said. “We had the advantage of halftime which let us settle the guys down and say, `look, all it takes is one goal and then suddenly the whole momentum shifts.'” That newfound focus yielded results less than two minutes into the second period, when co-captain senior forward Ricky Schramm netted a cross from sophomore forward Richard Frank deep in the box. Schramm’s 30th career goal gave the Hoyas back their confidence and soon the contest was theirs for the taking. “What he said was – which is very true in any soccer game – you put one in and the team’s going to fold,” Schramm said of Wiese’s halftime speech to the team. And fold they did. With 25 minutes left in the half, senior midfielder Daniel Grasso scored the equalizer with a hard, low shot, which was quickly followed by another unassisted score from junior forward Mike Glaccum on a breakaway in the 68th minute. Even with a lead, the Hoyas continued to pour it on, netting two more scores in rapid succession. Schramm scored again in the 78th minute and sophomore midfielder Conor Neusel closed out the Hoyas’ scoring with a header off a free kick from sophomore midfielder Peter Grasso. “It was a good lesson for the guys today, in that you don’t necessarily need to look at the scoreboard to understand how the game is going,” Wiese said. “We’ll tell you what the score is at the end of the game.” With Georgetown’s win over G.W. and American’s win over Howard in the late game on Friday, Sunday’s match between the Hoyas and the Eagles was set up to determine the tournament champion for the fifth straight year. As usual in the Georgetown-American series, the game was close and tense. Both teams came out sharp, with solid scoring chances early on. In the 15th minute, Schramm had an outstanding scoring opportunity for the Hoyas when he found himself in a one-on-one with American’s junior keeper Chris Sedlak, but Sedlek made a highlight-reel-caliber diving save to keep Georgetown off the board. Then, just a few minutes later, American got its own scoring chance when Georgetown sophomore defender Sean Bellomy misplayed a ball back to Keszler, but the Eagles could not convert on that play either. The Eagles did break the deadlock soon thereafter when sophomore forward Justin Turco put in a diving header off a cross from teammate senior midfielder Garth Juckem in the 28th minute. Looking for their second comeback of the weekend, the Hoyas tied the game at one-all in the 68th minute when co-captain senior Tim Convey put a pass through the Eagle defense to Daniel Grasso, who controlled the ball and put in a hard shot to the lower left corner. “After you get the equalizer, you feel you can capitalize on the momentum,” Wiese said. “I felt the longer the game went, the better chance we had at winning.” The stalemate would not go on much longer, however, as the contest picked up a sense of urgency as time wound down. Both teams stepped up the level of play and, with just over two minutes left in regulation, Convey got a little too aggressive on defense and fouled an American player just outside the penalty box. “I really don’t think that was a foul, personally,” Convey said of the game-deciding call. “I guess I shouldn’t have came in as hard as I did, but in the end, if I watched it again, I really don’t think that was a foul.” The referees disagreed with Convey and awarded the Eagles a direct kick within the arc. American senior forward Sal Caccavale took the kick and drilled in a shot around the Hoyas’ wall and out of the reach of Keszler to return the Craig Tartasky Trophy to the Eagles with the 2-1 victory. “I thought we were going to be able to come back two [games] in a row. We put ourselves in a hole twice,” Wiese said. “We gave them a second goal and we didn’t give ourselves enough time to come back again. I felt we just ran out of time.” Caccavale was named the tournament MVP for the deciding goal. It was a fitting way for the Eagles to regain the Cup, as it was also Caccavale who won them the tournament title in 2004 on free kick outside the box that around the Hoya defenders and just past the diving Keszler. “We played hard, gave a lot of effort, just missed a couple of chances and let a couple of chances go in that shouldn’t have gone in, but all in all I think we should have won the game,” Convey said. Seniors Grasso, Schramm and Convey were all named to the all-tournament team. American has won the D.C. College Cup in 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2006. Georgetown won the tournament the other two years. The Hoyas will have another chance at a tournament title this weekend at the Ameritas Classic at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb. Georgetown will take on host No. 20 Creighton tonight and finish the weekend with a match against Missouri State on Sunday morning. “We’re on the road again, and [our] first game is at Creighton who’s one of the top teams in the country and then [we’re] playing issouri State right after them and they’re another top team,” Wiese said. “So we’ve got two unbelievably tough games to follow up on this. But the good news is that [we] have two hard games, so the guys will have to really quickly refocus on that.” The Creighton Bluejays (0-2-0) are coming off losses to two top-15 opponents and are eager to pick up a win against the Hoyas. Last year the Bluejays went 15-5-3 and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament. They were selected to win the Missouri Valley Conference this season by league coaches. Georgetown and Creighton have met once before, resulting in a 6-0 blowout by the Bluejays last October on North Kehoe Field. Creighton senior defender Ryan Junge, senior forward Jarod Tarver and sophomore forward Byron Dacy each tallied one goal for the Bluejays. Georgetown senior keeper Andrew Keszler had three saves, while the Hoyas managed just one shot on goal as a team. The issouri State Bears will play their first game of the fall on Friday afternoon against the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights, before they take on the Hoyas on Sunday. Missouri State is coming off a 12-4-2 season in 2005 and was selected to finish second in the issouri Valley Conference behind Creighton. The Hoyas have never faced the Missouri State Bears before. Kickoff for the Hoyas against the Bluejays is set for 7:30 p.m. this afternoon at orrison Stadium in Omaha, Neb. Georgetown will continue play Sunday at 10:30 a.m. against the Bears, also at Morrison Stadium.