Box Score

WASHINGTON - The Georgetown University men's soccer team (1-0) shut out the American University Eagles (0-1) Friday afternoon at Reeves Field in the season opener. The Hoyas scored a pair of first-half goals to cruise to the 2-0 decision.

"In the early games of the season, we just hope the guys show up and perform," said Georgetown Head Coach Brian Wiese. "We did a good job of controlling play and creating chances, but we did a really poor job of finishing so there is some room for optimism and some things we need to improve upon."

The Hoyas dominated possession early as the offense was pressing and generating good chances. In the 12th minute, the ball was passed down to junior midfielder Ethan Lochner (New York, N.Y./Stuyvesant) on the left side and he found space to move forward. With a head of steam, he fired from distance into the upper right corner of the net and beat keeper, Shaun Quinn, to give the Hoyas the 1-0 lead.

In the 41st minute, Georgetown struck again as Marcinkowski started it out with a long pass up the field finding forward Derek Dodson (Aurora, Ill./Waubonsie Valley). The freshman made a move and hit sophomore forward Achara (Enugu, Nigeria/Berkshire School [Mass.]) barreling to his right. He passed it as Quinn came out of his net and Achara had an open net to fire into making it 2-0.

That would be the score as the squads went into halftime with Georgetown maintaining the momentum.

The Blue & Gray continued to push in the second half, while AU looked to get back in the game. Midway through the half, American had its best look of the contest as a cross found an Eagle with an open header at the far post that went high.

In the 84th minute, Achara slipped his defender and had another open look at the net as newly-inserted keeper John Mino came off of his line. The look went high as GU searched for one more.

Neither team could come up with a solid look as the Blue & Gray held on for the 2-0 shutout.

Georgetown outshot American, 14-6, and the Hoyas were awarded five corner kicks while the Eagles did not attempt any. Junior goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski (Alamo, Calif./De La Salle) took the win managing three saves, while the American keepers combined for four saves on the afternoon.

"JT didn't have a lot to do today, which is always a sign of a good outing for the back four and Christopher Lema was really important for us in the midfield," said Wiese. "We had a couple freshmen come on and look pretty good so that was a positive."

Georgetown will host Coastal Carolina in the team's home opener on Monday at Shaw Field. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. Live stats and a webcast featuring Dan Helfrich and Tom Greaser will be available at www.GUHoyas.com.