Hoyas Advance To Play Indiana For Championship.
Georgetown and the University of Maryland are only 11 miles apart down the beltway, and their men’s soccer teams played like they were far closer than that in the semifinals of the NCAA Division I College Cup at Region’s Park in Hoover, Al.
The Terrapins and Hoyas had previously played 28 times and Mar4yland had won each and every time. But it will be the Hoyas that are moving on to Sunday’s championship game against Indiana University.
After 110 minutes and eight total goals, the two teams squared off in a penalty kick shootout with the score deadlocked 4-4.
Georgetown goalkeeper Toms Gomez saved two of the Terps’ kicks, and his teammates made four. It sent the third-seeded Hoyas to the championship game for the first time in the program’s 60-year history.
The Hoyas (19-3-3) will play for the championship at 2 p.m. Sunday against No. 16 Indiana (15-5-3), a seven-time champion that defeated No. 12 Creighton, 1-0.
The two schools don’t play each other during the regular season because of some athletics programs conflicts. In their only other tournament meeting, Maryland had won 4-3 18 years ago in overtime.
“I blacked out after halftime, so hopefully we won,” Hoyas Coach Brian Wiese joked after the game. “That’s about as entertaining a soccer game as you will ever see.”
Georgetown held a 2-1 halftime lead, and the Terps had to twice rally from a pair of two-goal deficits in the second half. Georgetown’s Steve Neumann finished the game with a hat trick. Maryland freshman Schillo Tsuma scored a pair for the Terps.
The eight goals was the second highest in a College Cup semifinal. Forty-nine years ago Saint Louis beat Maryland 7-3.
Neuman’s hat trick was the first in a semifinal or final since Virginia’s Nate Friends did it back in 1993.
“This was a spectacle,” said Sasho Cirovski, in his 20th year at Maryland’s helm. “I’ve never seen anything close to it.”
Maryland was playing in the College Cup for the sixth time in the past 11 seasons. Georgetown had never advanced past the round of 16.
“These guys didn’t let the situation daunt them at all,” Wiese said. “They were very loose and very relaxed.”