The Georgetown men’s soccer team played to a 0-0 draw against the Seton Hall Pirates (3-10-2, 1-5-1 Big East) in a cold and hard fought road game Wednesday night. Each team gained one point for the Big East Conference standings, but the game could have had very different results.
In the first half, Georgetown started out slow, not playing as aggressive as they had been in their previous two wins. Junior forward Zach Knudson’s shot in the 11th minute was the best chance the Hoyas had to take the lead, but after the missed opportunity and later a save by Georgetown sophomore co-captain and goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski, the score remained tied after 45 minutes.
“It just took [the team] a while to settle into the game to be honest,” Head Coach Brian Wiese said of his team’s slow start. “[The game] lacked the intensity and atmosphere we were used to, we lacked a little bit of sharpness moving the ball.”
But after getting accustomed to turf field, the team played a much more aggressive second half. In the 59th minute, junior midfielder Arun Basuljevic’s shot hit the cross bar, and, in the 87th minute, junior forward Zach Knudson had a chance to score but missed from 10 yards out by the right side of the net.
After both teams failed to score in regulation, Georgetown found itself playing in another match that required extra time. The first real opportunity came in the 2nd minute of overtime, with Seton Hall’s redshirt freshman defender Corey Burkhardt missing a shot high off an open look.
Seton Hall, facing postseason elimination with a loss, fought hard to resist the Georgetown attack. In the last 30 seconds of overtime, the Hoyas had the ball deep in the Pirates’ zone, but after good stops by the Pirates’ defense, the game went into a second period of extra time.
The second overtime was controlled by Georgetown, outshooting Seton Hall five to zero. A great chance came in the fifth minute of the period, with Hoya freshman defender Riley Strassner barely missing the game-winning goal off a header in the box. The last two minutes were a keep away game between both teams until the game ended in a scoreless tie, and each team lost its opportunity to gain three conference points.
After a slow start, the Hoyas managed to have a solid defensive outing, not allowing Seton Hall to penetrate or get many open chances at the net. Coach Wiese was happy with the back four’s performance as well as Marcinkowski’s.
“JT had a good performance and didn’t have to make many saves against a team that has some dangerous players,” Wiese said of his defense’s play. Georgetown will look to carry its defensive momentum into their matchup against Villanova (9-5-2, 4-2-1 Big East)
DePaul’s (8-6-2, 3-4-0 Big East) win over Butler (9-5-1, 4-3-0 Big East) puts them a point ahead of Georgetown in the Big East standings. Georgetown can be elimanted from Big East postseason play if they fail to defeat Villanova on Saturday. The Hoyas are going to have to be extra focused going into the matchup against a strong Wildcat team.
“The game will be a challenge but in the team’s senior day, and with the season potentially on the line, the motivation certainly is there,” Wiese said of the Hoyas’ final regular season home game. “We’re playing at home and we need to have a performance worthy of sending our seniors off and giving ourselves something to fight for going into the finale at Creighton.”
Kickoff is set for 1:00 p.m. on Saturday at Shaw Field.
