The Hoyas needed a golden goal to beat the Golden Eagles on Saturday.

Sophomore midfielder Corey Zeller scored his first career goal at 1:35 in sudden-death overtime to give Georgetown a dramatic 1-0 victory over Marquette at North Kehoe Field in the final game of the season for both teams.

Although it was a disappointing season for the Hoyas (6-11-0, 3-8-0), the win capped the careers of five Georgetown seniors on a positive note. Co-captain and forward Ricky Schramm, co-captain and defender Tim Convey, goalkeeper Andrew Keszler, midfielder Daniel Grasso and midfielder Ben Jefferson-Dow played in their last game as Hoyas.

“It was definitely an emotional way to go out,” Jefferson-Dow said. “It’s been a long year, and it’s just obviously nice to win the last game. It feels good.”

Georgetown ended the season in seventh place in the Big East Blue Division and failed to qualify for the Big East Tournament for the first time since 2003. Marquette was the only team to finish behind Georgetown in the Blue Division standings.

Marquette (1-15-1, 0-11-0) came into the game with a 14-game losing streak but challenged the Hoyas from the outset. The Golden Eagles came close to scoring twice early in the first half. In the 10th minute, freshman forward Michael Greene got past the Georgetown defense, but his 10-yards-out shot from the right side sailed over the crossbar.

Two minutes later, freshman midfielder Mehdi Eslami sent a header from the center of the box toward the bottom right corner of the goal, but Keszler made a diving save to keep the Golden Eagles off of the scoreboard.

Georgetown almost took the lead seven minutes into the game, when Schramm possessed the ball at the top right corner of the box. As Marquette sophomore goalkeeper Matt Pyzdrowski ran toward him, Schramm aimed for the left corner of the goal, but his shot went just wide of the post. A nearly identical play occurred 23 minutes later, as Schramm’s shot from the same spot ended up to the left of the goal again.

“I felt we came out very flat,” Head Coach Brian Wiese said. “For senior day, that’s a little disappointing, but it’s also understandable, because for the first time all year we were not playing for that postseason prize.”

Marquette outshot Georgetown 10-6 in the first half, but the Hoyas had an 8-6 shot advantage in the second period. Keszler made a season-high seven saves in the contest.

With 13 minutes left in regulation time, Marquette senior midfielder Matt Blouin found a gap in the Hoya defense in the middle of the box and fired a low, hard shot to the right side of the goal, but Keszler made another diving save to preserve the shutout.

“We had plenty of opportunities on goal,” Marquette Associate Head Coach Stan Anderson said. “We had cracks from distance and we had cracks from close range, but we weren’t able to put one into to back of the net.”

“It was our last game and we were just leaving it all on the line,” Keszler said. “We kept them off the scoreboard, and that’s all you can ask for really.”

In the 81st minute, Grasso passed the ball to sophomore midfielder Conor Neusel, who kept possession as he sprinted along the left wing. Neusel found an open Schramm in the box, but Schramm’s right-footed blast missed, veering yet again to the left of the goal.

“Schramm is dangerous no matter where he is,” Anderson said. “Whether it was on a counter and he looked to get free one-on-one, or whether it was when he had possession in the box, he was dangerous.”

Although Schramm was unable to notch his 11th goal of the season, he made his final contribution to the Hoyas with an assist in overtime. Schramm passed the ball to Zeller, who stood at the top of the box with open space in front of him. Zeller slammed the ball off of a high bounce to the upper left corner of the goal, beyond the reach of Pyzdrowski.

“All I was thinking about at that time was to finish the game for the seniors,” Zeller said. “It was the shot of a lifetime.”

After the Hoyas celebrated Zeller’s game-winning goal, an emotional Jefferson-Dow walked slowly off the field with his head down.

“It was sort of a happy and sad day at the same time,” Jefferson-Dow said. “I’ve had a lot of really good memories here, and I’m going to miss it. I’m going to miss it a lot.”

Wiese said that replacing this year’s senior class will be a challenge.

“You know you’re doing a good job when every year your senior class is irreplaceable,” Wiese said. “That means that you’ve developed them and they’ve grown into what you wanted them to become. Our job now is to get next year’s seniors to become irreplaceable.”