VILLANOVA, Pa. – No. 3 Georgetown picked up a goal in each half to hold off a feisty Villanova side 2-0 in a BIG EAST match played on a sun-splashed afternoon at the Higgins Soccer Complex. The Hoyas wrapped up the BIG EAST regular season championship with the win (14-1-1 overall, 7-0-1 BIG EAST) while Villanova dropped to 8-8-1 overall, 1-6-1 in conference action.
Prior to the game, Villanova saluted seniors Jacob Anderson, David Bettenhausen, Conor Bradley, Shane Bradley, Andres Camacho, Jack Gilliam, Carson Hunt, Luca Mellor, Sean Teixeira and Evan Vare in a midfield ceremony.
"I thought we battled and carried out our game plan," stated Villanova head coach Tom Carlin. "We had some good chances to win this thing. We've been having trouble scoring and it followed us here today.
"I'm proud of the effort. We didn't get the result, but we played them as tough as anyone has in the conference. I think we continued with the progression with what we started in the second half last week at Butler."
Vare had an early bid to help the 'Cats grab the early lead but his blast was stopped by Georgetown goalkeeper Tomas Romero. Meanwhile, Wildcats' keeper Carson Williams was doing his usual yeoman's work to keep the ball out of the Villanova net. The redshirt sophomore would go on to make nine saves on the day.
The tenor of the game changed in the 27th minute. The Wildcats were whistled for a foul inside their own 18 yard box, setting up a penalty kick for the Hoyas. Derek Dodson converted with a shot into the left side of the net
Georgetown held that 1-0 advantage at halftime.
"We needed to get one in the first half," said Carlin. "I thought we outplayed Butler in the first half last week and didn't get a goal. You need to reward yourself with one there. If you do that, it changes the game.
"But we didn't get it."
Villanova pushed hard for the equalizer in the early stages of the second half. Junior Richie Schlentz and Seidu Shamsudeen both had shots that challenged Romero. But Georgetown managed to keep the 'Cats off the scoreboard and then capitalized off a flurry in front of Williams in the 73rd minute.
"I thought we were better in the first 15 or 20 minutes of the second half than we were in the first half," Carlin stated. "We just couldn't find one and that puts you in harms way against a team of this quality."
Achara fired a low shot that Williams made an excellent save on it. But the carom came directly to Jacob Montes, who converted the opportunity into a Hoyas goal at 72:26 to push the Georgetown lead to 2-0.
That would be the final count on an afternoon when Georgetown owned a 22-8 edge in shots.
"That's a team that can win a national championship," noted Carlin. "They're a really tough team to neutralize. There was nothing they did that we didn't expect. But the credit goes to Georgetown – that's a national championship caliber team."
Villanova will conclude the regular season on Wednesday when it visits BIG EAST rival Seton Hall.
