Allen’s OT goal propels No. 7 Georgetown men past Seton Hall
WASHINGTON (Via Georgetown University) – The No. 7/7 Georgetown University men’s soccer squad needed two comebacks and extra time after a wild second half to down the Seton Hall University Pirates (0-13-1, 0-7-0 BIG EAST), 3-2, in a soggy BIG EAST Conference match-up on Wednesday afternoon at Shaw Field.
With the win, the Hoyas improve to 11-2-2 on the season and a perfect 7-0-0 in BIG EAST Conference play.
In the 96th minute, junior forward Brett Campbell (Wallingford, Pa./Haverford School) and junior forward Alex Muyl (New York, N.Y./Bard) got it to senior forward Brandon Allen (Old Bridge, N.J./St. Joseph) on the left side. Allen had weaved through defenders and took a touch before firing into the net to give the Hoyas the 3-2 golden goal comeback victory.
“Credit to Seton Hall, they came out hard looking to get a win and I thought they were pretty effective in creating stuff in the first half and we were slow with our tempo and our movement,” said Georgetown Head Coach Brian Wiese. “It was a funky game with a lot of funny things in it. What we can take away as a positive is that we went down late, the boys became much more proactive generating things and the number of chances we generated over the last 20 minutes was way more than anything we did in the first 70.”
The win continues GU’s 12-game unbeaten streak, setting the new program record which stood since 2012. It also clinched a first-round bye in the BIG EAST Championship for the Hoyas. Georgetown and Creighton are currently the only two teams that are guaranteed a spot in the six-squad postseason tournament.
The first good chance of the game came from Muyl whose shot from the left side ricocheted off of the cross bar to keep it scoreless 15 minutes in.
The Pirates answered on a counter from a corner kick that resulted in a 4v1 as junior defender Joshua Yaro (Santa Barbara, Calif./Cate School) was all alone in the back. He managed the attack and slowed it to wait for numbers to get back before possession went back to the Blue & Gray.
Seton Hall added a shot that went just wide and a crafty free kick, as the Blue & Gray possessed but wasn’t dangerous.
The first save of the game was from SHU keeper Julian Spindler as a header from senior defender Josh Turnley (Beaver, Pa./Beaver Area) was stopped off of the free kick. Muyl followed that up with another good look as the Hoyas were getting more off of the offensive end.
Freshman goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski (Alamo, Calif./De La Salle) was forced to lay out for a shot with five minutes left in the half as Seton Hall had an opportunity from the top of the box.
Georgetown regained possession late as the squads went into the break in a scoreless tie.
Yaro was the key 10 minutes into the second has he came up with two big blocks on a pair of 1v1 within the same minute as Seton Hall was the better team early on.
It was up to Marcinkowksi to come up with another big save as he deflected a shot from Samuel Geiler to force the corner kick.
GU’s first good chance came in the 67th minute as a nice build up resulted in a shot from sophomore midfielder Arun Basuljevic (Mahopac, N.Y./Mahopac) going just left of the post.
It all changed in the 71st minute as the ball was bouncing around in the Georgetown box, and Julian Kennedy sent it to Danny Bartok who fired from the top right corner of the box and to the far post to make it 1-0 in favor of the Pirates ending GU’s streak of more than 566 scoreless minutes.
The fireworks continued as the Hoyas answered quickly when senior defender Keegan Rosenberry (Ronks, Pa./Lancaster Mennonite) sent it to Muyl whose through ball went to the foot of a charging David Witkoff (Gahanna, Ohio/Gahanna Lincoln) who buried it to tie it at one.
The tie didn’t last long, however, as Lukas Pangonis hit a bouncing ball to the top of the box forcing Marcinkowki to come off of his line. Kennedy went up for it with Marcinkowki and managed to get it over him and into the net to regain the lead less than a minute later.
The scoring wasn’t over as GU battled to get shots off. Muyl was taken down at the endline in the 83rd minute, just inside the box as the divot on the field showed. It resulted in a penalty kick from Allen who buried it for the second-consecutive game to tie the score at two.
In the final seconds, the Blue & Gray managed one final chance, but it went wide forcing extra time.
The overtime began with a tough collision that resulted in a long delay before the Hoyas had a pair of golden chances stopped as Spindler was out of his net.
This set up Allen’s game winner as the Hoyas managed the 3-2 overtime victory.
Georgetown outshot Seton Hall, 15-9, and took eight corner kicks to Seton Hall’s one. Marcinkowski took the win in the net with two saves, while Spindler was given the loss posting three saves in the contest.
The Hoyas will complete their road schedule on Saturday at Villanova University in a 1 p.m. matchup.
The game will be broadcast for free on the BIG EAST Digital Network.
