Oct. 7, 2011
WASHINGTON - The No. 13 Georgetown University men's soccer team will continue BIG EAST play at West Virginia University on Saturday evening. The contest marks GU's second conference road test of the season after defeating Villanova in the league opener and DePaul at home. Georgetown will kickoff against the Mountaineers at 7:30 p.m.
Georgetown (7-1-3, 2-0-0 BIG EAST) downed the DePaul University Blue Demons last weekend in the team's first home conference matchup. The Hoyas shutout the Blue Demons, 2-0, at North Kehoe Field as junior Ian Christianson (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Christian Life) and freshman Tom Skelly (Albuquerque, N.M./Shattuck-St. Mary's) both tallied a score, while sophomore Steve Neumann (New Hope, Pa./Council Rock North) had two assists.
Later in the week, Georgetown downed the American University Eagles, 2-1, as Christianson and senior Ben Slingerland (Beverly, Mass./St. John's Prep) scored for the Blue & Gray. The game was the squad's annual contest under the lights at Multi-Sport Field.
The Hoyas have not lost in ten matches and have played in six overtime games so far this season along with posting six shutouts.
Junior Tommy Muller (Altamonte Springs, Fla./Trinity Prep) was named the BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week and freshman goalkeeper Tomas Gomez (Webster Groves, Mo./Webster Groves) earned his third-consecutive spot on the BIG EAST Honor Roll on Monday.
Muller anchored a defense that posted two shutouts last week. Penn State registered no shots on goal against the Hoyas and only two shots in the extra frames. Muller leads a defense that has posted two BIG EAST shutouts. It was his first-career BIG EAST honor.
Gomez managed seven saves in the victory over DePaul to mark the sixth shutout of the season for the freshman. Although he had no saves against Penn State, Gomez managed the defense in both contests. He has played and started in ten games with 40 saves as well as a GAA of 0.46. Gomez has an overall record of 7-1-2.
Leading the way for Georgetown is Neumann who has 16 points with six goals, including three game winners, and four assists. Christianson has four goals with one assist for nine points to rank second.
West Virginia is 5-4-1 on the season and 1-1 in conference play, but has dropped two of it last three decisions. The Mountaineers are led by freshman Andy Bevin who has six goals and two assists for 14 points on the year. Junior Shadow Sebele has three goals and four assists on the season to lead the squad in helpers. Redshirt junior Justin Holmes has played in six games in goal with 18 saves.
The Mountaineer defense has allowed 1.17 goals per game with two shutouts.
Georgetown is 11-4 all-time against West Virginia. The last meeting was at North Kehoe Field when the Hoyas came out on top, 1-0, a season ago when the Mountaineers were ranked No. 21. In that game, Christianson converted a penalty kick for the win. The last time the Blue & Gray played at West Virginia was a 2-1 win with Scott Larrabee scoring the late game winner.
Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium. Live stats and a pay-per-view webcast will be available at www.GUHoyas.com.
