Seton Hall University
Georgetown
MSOC Falls in Regular Season Finale
10/27/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Because of an imbalanced conference schedule, the Pirates found themselves closing out the regular season with a home-and-home series against Georgetown, having just faced the Hoyas on Wednesday afternoon in South Orange.
Seton Hall finishes the BIG EAST regular season with a 2-6 record in conference, but can still qualify for the BIG EAST Tournament as the Blue Division's fifth seed. SHU is currently tied with Providence College for the final postseason spot, but has the tiebreaker over the Friars via a 2-1 head-to-head victory on Oct. 3.
If Providence drops its conference finale at No. 3 Connecticut on Saturday afternoon, Seton Hall will clinch a postseason berth. The Pirates will travel either to Villanova or St. John's in the first round, depending on the outcome of the Cincinnati and Louisville match this evening; a Bearcat win would vault them into the No. 3 seed in the Red Division, knocking the Red Storm down to fourth.
Against Georgetown on Saturday the Pirates saw the Hoyas come out very aggressively in both halves. Georgetown fired 12 shots in the first 45 minutes of action, five of them on net, but was unable to get on the scoreboard.
SHU redshirt-senior goalkeeper Michael Kuzan (Union, N.J.) made all five saves in the first half to keep the Pirates in the game and he stopped the first three shots he faced in the second period before Georgetown broke through for the game winner with a little under seven minutes to play.
Kuzan finished the day with two saves on penalty kicks, stopping a Ian Christiansen attempt in the 15th minute, and making another save on a Georgetown penalty kick attempt, this time from Steve Nuemann, in the 55th minute.
Steve Neumann made a long pass to Andy Riemer at the top of the Seton Hall goal box, which he re-routed to Georgetown's leading scorer Brandon Allen on the left side. Allen was able to beat Kuzan for his 11th goal of the season, and that proved to be the difference in the low scoring game.
The Pirates finished strong in the first half, firing two of their six shots on goal over the final 12 minutes of the opening period. Tomas Gomez made a save on a George Velasquez (Union City, N.J.) attempt and then stopped John Gurel (Istanbul, Turkey) with only 50 seconds to play in the period.
Junior forward Max Garcia (Jersey City, N.J.) was the aggressor for Seton Hall in the second half, as he had two shots on goal, and provided the pass on a corner-kick attempt that nearly resulted in an SHU score in the 63rd minute.
Velasquez had a shot that was saved by Gomez, but resulted in a corner kick opportunity for the Pirates. Garcia was able to find Gurel in the area off the corner, but his shot was also turned away by Gomez.
Georgetown finished with a 25-9 advantage in shots attempts, but six of Seton Hall's attempts were on net. Garcia had four shots for SHU, while Gurel and Velasquez finished with two apiece.
