WASHINGTON – The Georgetown University men's soccer team used a three-goal second half to shut out the Providence College Friars (10-7-2) 4-0 Wednesday afternoon at Shaw Field in the BIG EAST Championship Semifinal.  Senior Ethan Lochner (New York, N.Y. / Stuyvesant) had a pair of scores to help the Hoyas improve to 11-4-3 and advance to their third championship game in four years.
 
"With a team like Providence, you know they're not going to make it easy and I thought the first five minutes of the second half was going how they wanted it to go," said Georgetown Head Coach Brian Wiese.  "I think our back four was really good today, we handled their threats in the box, we didn't concede a lot of free kicks.  It just took us a little while to get a hold of the ball and play the game the way we wanted."
 
The first 15 minutes of the game were uneventful as neither squad had a really dangerous look at the goal.  The contest became physical early on as the Friars were charged with back-to-back yellow cards setting GU up with free kicks.  Nothing came from the opportunities, but a laser from Lochner well outside the box went just over the crossbar as the Blue & Gray searched for the first goal.
 
The difference came in the 30th minute as a Friar handball in the box gave the Hoyas the penalty kick. Senior midfielder Kyle Zajec (Westport, Conn. / Staples) buried it to make it 1-0 as the Blue & Gray struck first.
 
Georgetown possessed for the remainder of the half as the Friars never really had an opportunity to test the GU defense.  Georgetown went into the break leading 1-0.
 
The second half had a similar feel as neither squad looked exceptionally dangerous.  Ten minutes into the period, the pace quickened which opened up opportunities.  Sophomore midfielder Jacob Montes (Lake Worth, Fla. / Beaverton [Ore.]) slipped junior Achara (Enugu, Nigeria / Berkshire School [Mass.]) the ball in the box, but the forward's shot was just left of the far post. 
 
As the Hoyas pushed forward, Georgetown began to put pressure on the Providence defense.  In the 59th minute, the Blue & Gray found the second goal to get some breathing room.  Junior defender Dylan Nealis (Massapequa, N.Y. / Massapequa) sent in a ball from the endline and found the head of sophomore Riley Strassner (Avon, Conn. / Avon) whose header was saved.  The rebound came back to Strassner and he shot it right back in finding the back of the net to make it 2-0.
 
The physicality had not lessened in the game, and tempers flared late as a Friar was assessed a red card in the 69th minute after a hard challenge.  The card resulted in GU playing up a man for the remainder of the contest.
 
The Georgetown offense pushed forward and the man-up situation took its toll on the Friars.  In the 80th minute of action, Lochner managed an impressive feat as he scored two goals in the same minute of action to seal the victory.  On the first, he dribbled in on the left side and shot but keeper Colin Miller made the stop.  The ball bounced back to Lochner jumped over the keeper and hit the far side netting to make it 3-0.  Following the restart, Montes passed a through ball to Lochner in the middle of the box forcing Miller off of his line.  Lochner took a touch and scored in the empty net make it 4-0 which would stand as the final.
 
The Hoyas outshot the Friars, 18-8, and took three corner kicks while Providence was awarded none.  Miller was given the loss with five saves in the net, while freshman goalkeeper Giannis Nikopolidis (Athens, Greece / Nea Genia Zirdi) had the shutout victory with one save on the afternoon.
 
The Hoyas will now face the winner of top-seeded Creighton and fourth-seeded Marquette on Sunday in the BIG EAST Championship.  The game will be played at the home of the higher seed.  It will be broadcast live on FS2 and live stats will be available at www.GUHoyas.com. Kickoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET.