Sept. 25, 2009

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WASHINGTON - The Georgetown University men's soccer team used an early goal to come away with a 1-0 victory over the Villanova University Wildcats (4-3-1, 1-2 BIG EAST) Friday afternoon at North Kehoe Field. The Hoyas scored less than five minutes in and then managed to hold on through a barrage of Wildcat shots to get the win and improve to 5-2-1 on the season as well as 2-1 in the BIG EAST. The victory marked the Blue & Gray's sixth shutout of the year.

"I give a lot of credit to Nova because they really outplayed us today," said Head Coach Brian Wiese. "This is always a tough BIG EAST game. Since I've been here the result against them is always a one-goal difference or a tie. We were fortunate to come away with a win."

Georgetown had the momentum early as defender Ibu Otegbeye (Winter Park, Fla./Winter Park) sent the ball downfield to the feet of sophomore Uche Onyeador (Sterling, Va./Potomac Falls). The forward had a two-on-three but managed to slide a perfect pass through the defense to Jose Colchao (Fairfax, Va./Lake Braddock Secondary School) streaking down the right side. Colchao took two quick touches and nailed a composed shot past keeper Chris Bresnahan to make it 1-0 at the five-minute mark.

"It was a great goal early," said Wiese. "Uche had a terrific pass to Jose who had a good finish."

Despite the early surge, the Hoyas struggled to control the tempo for the remainder of the half as the Wildcats had a number of good looks. Going into the break, Georgetown led 1-0 but was outshot 5-4.

The second half looked no better for the Hoyas who still couldn't maintain possession. Just as the defense began to look a step slow, the Villanova offense got going. The duo of senior Mike Seamon and freshman Kyle Soroka became dangerous getting a number of solid looks at the goal. A shot off the crossbar and a breakaway going wide saved two near-goals with the Hoya defense on its heels.

Finally, Georgetown was able to settle down and get the ball out of the box as GU keeper Mark Wilber (Tijeras, N.M./Albuquerque Academy) made some big saves to energize the squad. Down the stretch the offense began to look better and the Hoyas managed to hold off the `Cats for the 1-0 victory.

"Big Mark Wilber was tremendous in goal today, he came up with some huge saves," said Wiese. "We'll take this result and move on to Sunday where we can hopefully get another."

Georgetown was outshot 13-5 and Wilber notched seven saves to Bresnehan's three, tallying his third shutout of the season and the team's sixth overall. The Wildcats also took four corner kicks to the Hoyas' one.

The Blue & Gray will host another BIG EAST Red Division rival on Sunday as the Rutgers Scarlet Knights come to the Hilltop. Game time is scheduled for 1 p.m. at North Kehoe Field. Live stats and a webcast will be available at www.GUHoyas.com.