Aug. 29, 2011
Box Score | Photo Gallery 
WASHINGTON - The Georgetown University men's soccer squad fell in a heartbreaking overtime loss, 1-0, to the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams (2-0-0) on Monday afternoon at North Kehoe Field. The Hoyas looked strong in the second half, but a sudden-victory goal gave the Rams the win. Georgetown is 0-1-0 on the season.
"It looked like a first to me to be honest with you," said Georgetown Head Coach Brian Wiese. "The first 45 minutes we let them get comfortable and do what they wanted to do. I thought the second half was much better, we gave them less time on the ball, we kept it much better and we had a lot more chances."
Neither squad could get a rhythm in the first half as both had few chances. Freshman goalkeeper Tomas Gomez (Webster Groves, Mo./Webster Groves) made a number of big saves as the Rams looked to score on long shots near the top of the box.
In the 32nd minute, GU had one of its best opportunities of the game as sophomore forward Steve Neumann (New Hope, Pa./Council Rock North) found classmate Keegan Carter (Teaneck, N.J./Paramus Catholic) at the far post who knocked it over the goal line. However, Carter's shot was ruled a save by the referee making the score 0-0 which would stand throughout the half.
In the second half, the Hoyas looked dangerous with six shots and a number of chances in the box. The Rams, however, continued to stop every Georgetown advance getting a few opportunities of their own. The game was played from end to end as both teams would gain possession and counter resulting in an incredibly fast-paced contest.
Despite opportunities, neither could find the back of the net in regulation forcing golden-goal overtime.
"When you play a good team, you're not going to get a lot of good chances and you have to take what you can get," said Wiese. "We didn't take them today."
The Hoyas were confident going into the extra period, but the Rams came out and forced a Georgetown miscue resulting in a shot from Juan Arbelaez in the 92nd minute which would end the game with a 1-0 final.
GU outshot the Rams, 12-10, and took four corner kicks to their two. In the net, Gomez managed five saves including four in the first period in his intercollegiate debut. VCU's Josh Pantazelos tallied four saves for the win.
"Tomas was terrific," said Wiese. "He doesn't look like a freshman at all, very calm and he made a couple good saves."
The Blue & Gray is 29-25-3 all-time in season openers and 19-18-1 when those are at home.
Georgetown will continue it opening home stand next weekend hosting Radford on Friday and Stanford on Sunday. Friday's game is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m., at North Kehoe Field. Live stats and a webcast featuring Dan Helfrich will be available at www.GUHoyas.com.
