It’s finally raining in Hoyaland after a prolonged goal drought.
After a 2-1 win at Marquette on Saturday night, the Hoyas – which had not posted back-to-back wins all season and recorded a 377-minute scoring drought during a four-game losing streak earlier this season – notched two goals in consecutive victories for the first time all season.
The Hoyas (5-9-0, 3-5-0) found themselves in a tie for fifth place in the Big East Blue Division with a six-point lead and the tiebreaker on their nearest challenger, the Golden Eagles (2-10-2, 1-7-0). Georgetown has nearly cemented a postseason bid with three conference games remaining.
“It’s a huge win for the guys,” Georgetown Head Coach Brian Wiese said. “It takes the pressure off them, and now we can look at how high up on the ladder we can get.”
After playing an aggressive first half in which it took six shots and limited Marquette to one, Georgetown cracked the scoring column with a minute and a half to go in the half when freshman forward Chandler Diggs collected a pass from junior forward Sean Bellomy and hit a 12-yard shot into the left side of the net. The score was Diggs’ third of the season, tying him for the team lead and giving him the most points on the squad. Coming on as a substitute just five minutes before the goal, Bellomy proved to be the catalyst the offense needed in a first half full of scoring chances.
“We controlled the tempo and did what we wanted in the first half,” Wiese said. “The only thing we didn’t do was go up three or four goals, which we could have easily done.”
Coming out of halftime, the Golden Eagles wasted little time knotting the score when they snuck a ball past freshman goalkeeper atthew Brutto 29 seconds into the half. Junior forward Duncan Silvert-Noftle sent a cross into the box, and while junior midfielder Dan Addis was officially credited with the score, Wiese said that the ball hit off of a Georgetown defender and was an own goal.
The goal marked the first time this season the Hoyas had given up a lead.
“When they scored, everything we said at halftime went out the window, and the boys had to sort it out on the field,” Wiese said, referring to the change in game plan now that the score was tied.
In the 69th minute, Georgetown took advantage of what Wiese called, “a little soccer karma,” when sophomore midfielder Scott Larrabee’s cross was knocked in by a arquette player for another own goal. Sophomore center back Len Coleman was the closest Hoya in the area pressuring the Golden Eagle defense when the go-ahead goal was scored.
Brutto played well in net and the Hoyas’ defense held in front of him when the Golden Eagles pressed in the final 20 minutes. Despite the own-goal lapse, Marquette took nine shots in the second half, but Brutto saved three en route to his third win of the season.
“We did a much better job of taking care of the ball in the second half and the results were very clear,” Marquette Head Coach Louis Bennett said. “We had some good possession and created some quality chances.”
In its past two wins, Georgetown has recorded four goals, as opposed to the five it scored in the first 12 games of the season.
The Hoyas will look to extend their winning streak when they travel to College Park to take on Maryland (6-4-4) in a non-conference match tonight. The Terrapins are 26-0-0 all-time against Georgetown, but according to Wiese, the Hoyas will not feel any pressure going into the hostile environment.
“We’ve played at UConn and SMU, so playing a quality opponent on the road is nothing new,” he said. “And our emphasis is on the Big East right now, so I think the guys will have some fun in the game.”
