Georgetown men’s soccer Head Coach Brian Wiese was pleased that the team was going into Sunday’s game against No. 9 New Mexico (2-0-1) with the lower ranking, because as he said in a previous interview, “It’s always easier to be an underdog.”
Unfortunately for the No. 11 Hoyas (2-2), their underdog status wasn’t enough to compensate for tired legs, and the Blue and Gray endured a tough 1-0 overtime loss.
From the start, the Hoyas were playing on their heels due to the Lobos’ dynamic offense, which outshot Georgetown 15-7 overall. For the Hoyas, senior forwards Gabe Padilla and Steve Neumann both recorded three shots and sophomore forward Melvin Snoh added one. The Lobos’ 15 shots came from eight different players, posing a challenge for the Georgetown defense.
“I thought they caused a lot of problems for us on our home field,” Wiese said. “They came out and played very well, I think they did a lot of things they wanted to do for the first half.”
But in the 18th minute, it looked like the Hoyas would tally the first goal when Brandon Allen managed to knock a pass past the New Mexico keeper. The goal however, was called back; Allen was a hair offside, a problem that cropped up repeatedly for the Hoyas during the entire game.
“We had a few chances that we could have buried and a few offsides … that we could have held our runs a little more,” Neumann said.
With only a couple chances on goal to begin with and eight offside calls, Georgetown’s opportunities to score were few and far between.
“[New Mexico has] an experienced back line. Their center backs are good … They were smart with letting us run offsides, but the timing for us wasn’t good today,” Wiese said. “If we were a little better with that, that’s maybe how we could have gotten ahold of the game.”
The Lobos, who had nine corner kicks compared to the Hoyas’ zero, kept Georgetown’s back four of sophomores Josh Turnley, Cole Seiler and Keegan Rosenberry and freshman Joshua Yaro busy for all 104 minutes until an unlucky bounce resulted in a New Mexico goal and ended the game.
When junior keeper Tomas Gomez saved a shot by Lobos junior striker James Rogers, it fell to the feet of redshirt freshman defender Nicholas Rochowski, who put it away, solidifying a disappointing result for Wiese and company.
“In the overtime periods, it looked like it was just going to be a tie, and then the goal they got was really out of nothing,” Wiese said. “It’s unfortunate that you have to lose a game like that, but when you play top-level teams, you’re going to lose those games sometimes, and the trick is just to make sure you win some of them as well.”
The Hoyas will have a chance to win their next game against Duquesne (4-0) at 4 p.m. on Thursday at Shaw Field. The Dukes, though undefeated, have a relatively easy non-conference schedule compared to Georgetown’s, their wins coming against Longwood, Oakland, Howard and Incarnate Word. After Georgetown’s overtime loss, the Duquesne matchup should be a welcome opportunity to chalk one up in the win column.
