Sometimes all it takes is the right place and the right time.
When No. 4 Georgetown met No. 5 North Carolina Friday afternoon, two of the nations’ best teams were pitted against each other in a grueling contest that needed two extra periods to name a winner. Ultimately the Hoyas secured an 8-7 win over the Tar Heels with some prime positioning and a bit of good luck.
Just 45 seconds into the second overtime period, Georgetown junior attacker Brittany Baschuk scored on a put back of her own shot, and for once, the Tarheels (7-3) were unable to answer, giving the Hoyas a hard-fought 8-7 win.
“We set up a nice look for Brittany because we thought she could take her defender,” Head Coach Ricky Fried said. “She beat her defender, and it wasn’t the best shot she’s ever taken in her life, but luckily it bounced off of a defender and she was alert enough to pick up the loose ball and stick the next one home.”
Baschuk concurred, saying, “The coaches said I could beat my defender and my team set me up real well, and like [Coach] said, it wasn’t the best shot, but I got the rebound and I was just in the right place at the right time.”
The road to the double overtime victory was one full of peaks and valleys. Georgetown began the game by winning the draw and quickly moved the ball into Carolina territory. The Hoyas peppered the Tarheel defense relentlessly early on, and junior attacker Sara Zorzi, senior midfielder Paige Andrews, and junior attacker Coco Stanwick stake Georgetown to a 3-0 lead.
Sparked by a goal by junior midfielder Jess Allen with 12:03 remaining in the half, however, North Carolina took control of the game and led 4-3 at the half.
“Things were going our way great,” Fried said. “And it wasn’t even a garbage goal [that started to turn things around], but I think people started to question themselves. . Instead of moving on to the next play, we thought about the last play.”
The new half did not end Carolina’s run. The Tarheels scored three of the second half’s first four goals – Andrews had the lone Georgetown score on a goal assisted by sophomore midfielder Patty Piotrowicz – and on senior attacker Stephanie Scurachio’s goal with 18:43 remaining, Carolina took a 7-4 lead, prompting a Hoya timeout.
“At the timeout when it was 7-4 [we said] we have to make a decision,” Fried said. “How badly do we want it? We know what we’re capable of doing.”
Thankfully, Fried’s squad responded. Junior attacker Schuyler Sutton ripped a free position shot past the North Carolina goalie with 10:41 to go, and just two minutes later, Stanwick tallied a free position goal of her own. Then, with just 5:22 remaining in regulation, second-leading scorer Lucy Poole, a senior midfielder, scored her first goal of the game, knotting the score at seven. Though the final five minutes of regulation were scoreless, they were hardly drama-free.
The first overtime was all Hoyas on the field – Stanwick controlled the lone draw, Andrews and Poole both narrowly missed the decisive goal – but on the scoreboard, it was even at zero, and the game went to a second overtime.
The second overtime started very much like the first. Stanwick controlled the draw – after the Tarheels held an 8-6 advantage on the draw late in regulation, the Hoyas won the last five – and Georgetown quickly moved the ball deep into North Carolina territory.
It was just 45 second later that Baschuk shot, missed, and converted her own rebound.
“I didn’t really know where [the first shot] went. I kind of just let it go and the next thing I know, it’s up in the air, and I just kind grabbed it and shot it,” she said.
Stanwick controlled the ensuing draw, and Carolina never got a shot. With less than a minute remaining, Koch and junior defender Chloe Asselin tosses the ball back and fourth, running out the clock and sealing the victory.
Though they trailed by three goals in the second half, this Georgetown team, one that held off a feisty Princeton rally just two weeks ago, kept its head in the game.
“Everyone was pretty upset [when we were down] because we knew we could play better,” Stanwick said. “But, it was also very calm because there was a lot of time left and we knew that we could come back, we have to do this together.”
In the end, Georgetown returned to its fundamentals.
“The things that we kept talking about during the game were that we need to focus on what we’re doing,” Fried said. “When we do that, good things happen. When we play with effort, when we play with intelligence, and when we play together, we’re a pretty good team.”
On the other side, Levy pointed to execution as her team’s downfall.
“I just don’t think we did a good job [executing],” she said. “We didn’t do a good job of one, being too patient, and other times not being patient enough and playing right into their hands.”
Georgetown returns to action Wednesday against a tough Maryland squad, ranked seventh nationwide.
“It is another huge game going into it,” Stanwick said. “They’re a very good team, very fast and athletic, and we’re going to need to play together and step up and win as a team.”
Game time in College Park, Md. is set for 7 p.m.
