Sept. 6, 2009

Box Score
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WASHINGTON - History was made Sunday afternoon at North Kehoe Field as the Georgetown University men's soccer squad defeated the No. 19 UCLA Bruins by a score of 2-0. In front of an almost sellout crowd, the Hoyas held the Bruins scoreless in the first half before putting two away in the second. The win marked the first victory over a nationally-ranked opponent under Head Coach Brian Wiese.

"Obviously today was a big win, UCLA is a top-tier team," said Wiese. "They went to Maryland and won 2-0 in front of 7,000 screaming fans so we weren't surprised by their talent. We've drawn attention to ourselves over the past few years, but to gain respect we need to win games like this. The boys fought hard and I'm really proud of their effort today."

UCLA, coming off of a big 2-0 win over No. 1 Maryland on Friday evening, came out strong as the talented midfield took it right to the Georgetown defense. By double-teaming the forwards, the Hoya backline managed to hold the Bruins scoreless during a relatively quiet half.

Neither team had many good looks at the goal as they went into the locker room with two shots apiece and only one save on the afternoon by GU keeper Mark Wilber (Tijeras, N.M./Albuquerque Academy). The Bruins also had two corner kicks in the opening stanza while Georgetown was awarded none.

The second half belonged to the Blue & Gray as the fired-up Hoyas took the field. After conceding a tough second-half goal against Cal on Friday, the Hoyas were determined not to let up on defense.

In the 60th minute, the game was broken open on a free kick by senior captain Mark Zeman (Western Springs, Ill./Lyons Township). The defender served it into the box and the ball landed at the feet of Scott Larrabee (Palos Verdes Estates, Calif./Loyola High School of Los Angeles) who chipped it to GU's rushing attackers. Junior Alex Verdi (Ivyland, Pa./Germantown Academy) managed to get a head on it sending the ball the length of the goal, but it was classmate Jose Colchao (Fairfax, Va./Lake Braddock Secondary School) who redirected the shot into the bottom right corner of the net to send the crowd into a frenzy as the Hoyas went up 1-0.

"Jose has had a great preseason and he's been generating chances so I was really happy to see him score," said Wiese. "He had some chances and could have had a hat trick today if the keeper hadn't made some big saves. It was a group effort, Scotty (Larrabee) hit a good ball and Alex (Verdi) got it to Jose for the goal which really energized us."

Going down a goal, the talented UCLA offense threw everything it had at GU forcing Wilber to make three huge saves. The Hoya defenders also notched a number of huge blocks. The Bruins had opportunities taking nine corner kicks in the second half but the defense stood strong.

As the clock wound down, Georgetown began to once again go on the attack as Colchao had another good look at the goal. However, keeper Brian Perk, who played his last game with UCLA before leaving to train with a U.S. U-20 National squad, made the save.

In the 82nd minute, the Blue & Gray got some breathing room as Seth C'deBaca (Albuquerque, N.M./Sandia Prep) was tackled near the endline. The foul resulted in a penalty kick that went off of the post and deflected in making it 2-0.

The crowd of 1,957 got to its feet to count out the final ten seconds as Georgetown went on to cement the 2-0 victory.

The Hoyas were outshot 10-7 and had just two corner kicks to UCLA's 11. In a physical matchup, Georgetown committed 18 fouls to the Bruins' 15. Wilber notched four saves in the game, getting the victory, while Perk managed one on the afternoon after shutting out Maryland two nights prior.

"Everyone played well today from front to back," said Wiese. "The back four was terrific, Lenny (Coleman) and Alex (Verdi) were superb and Rob (Burnett) and Ian (Christianson) in the midfield were terrific which were keys to the game."

The Hoyas will have the week off before traveling to Davidson, N.C., for a tournament hosted by the Wildcats. Georgetown will face Coastal Carolina on Friday evening at 5 p.m.

"We'll have to address ourselves after this game, we still have a long way to go and a lot to improve upon," said Wiese. "It's a long trip to North Carolina and you never know what to expect playing in front of a neutral crowd so we'll take this one but we will keep working to get better."