Kente Korner Episode 133: Georgetown Men’s Soccer Coach Brian Wiese Ahead of College Cup

The Georgetown Hoyas Men’s Soccer Team is College Cup bound and on their way to Cary, North Carolina. In the midst of a tough NCAA Tournament, the Hoyas are one game away from an appearance in the championship.

Bobby spoke with Coach Brian Wiese to talk about the team ahead of their semifinal matchup against Washington on Friday night (8:30 PM, ESPNU).

GUHoyas wrote about the men’s team’s win over West Virginia:

WASHINGTON – The Georgetown University men’s soccer team is headed back to the College Cup for the third time in program history after advancing on penalty kicks following a 1-1 double overtime draw with the West Virginia University Mountaineers (12-3-6) in front of a capacity crowd on Saturday at Shaw Field. With the win, Georgetown improves to 19-2 on the season and is back in the semifinals for the second time in three seasons.

Postgame Reaction

• “I’m really proud of the guys, our reserves that came on gave us some good, important minutes. We had an incredible crowd giving us energy I thought everyone showed up and performed really well today.” – Head Coach Brian Wiese
• “We’ve been in this position before and it’s about compassion for your teammates. Everyone wants to see everyone succeed and, if you look and to your left and your right, everyone wants to win. We had the bench motivating us and it was a whole team effort.” – Will Sands
• “This is our last game on this field and we wanted to end on a win. I think it was pretty important. We are sentimental with this field, it’s been where we’ve played for four years now and we couldn’t end on a loss.” – Giannis Nikopolidis
• “Before the kick, Dante just told me it was my moment to make the most of the all of the hard work we have put in throughout the season and send us to Cary. This is incredible, as a freshman, my first year. I love everyone on the team, this is the best team I’ve ever played for. Everybody is so supportive of each other and I couldn’t be happier to go there with anybody else.” – Joe Buck

How it Happened

• Both teams had a chance early as Georgetown keeper Giannis Nikopolidis had to make the first save of the game diving to his left in the third minute.
• It was West Virginia who got on the board first as the Mountaineers came down the left side and switched the play finding an open player on the right. Ike Swiger sent it in and a charging Yoran Popovic was able to get a foot on it to put WVU up 1-0 in the 16th minute.
• The Hoyas would hold the advantage in possession for the remainder of the first half, but every shot was blocked as Mountaineer keeper Steven Tekesky was not forced to make a save.
• GU went into the break trailing 1-0.
• West Virginia had momentum early in the second half as the Mountaineers forced Nikopolidis to come up with two huge saves to keep it a one-goal match.
• The equalizer came in the 67th minute when a brilliant run from Will Sands resulted in a take down in the box. Junior Dante Polvara stepped up and confidently scored to tie the game at one giving the Blue & Gray new life.
• Georgetown would keep pushing for the go-ahead goal, but neither team would find it as the match went into extra time tied at one.
• The best opportunity of the extra time came from sophomore Chris Hegardt as he had an open look that was saved by Tekesky.
• Both teams took possession, but after 110 minutes of play the match ended in a tie and it would go to penalty kicks to decide the advancing squad.
• Stepping up first, junior Stefan Stojanovic buried his shot. This was followed by a save from Nikopolidis to put the Hoyas ahead.
• Seniors Zach Riviere and Aidan Rocha both found the back of the net and Nikopolidis came up with another save as freshman Joe Buck stepped up for the winning chance. Buck didn’t flinch in the face of pressure and confidently put it away as the crowd of 3,027 went wild and GU had the 4-1 advantage.

Of Note

• Georgetown outshot West Virginia 15-11 and the Blue & Gray had just four shots on goal to the Mountaineers’ six.
• The Hoyas were awarded five corner kicks, while WVU had two on the day.
• Nikopolidis took the win with five saves to his credit, while Tekesky was given the loss with three stops in the match.
• Georgetown will head back to the College Cup for the third time in program history, most recently in 2019 when the Hoyas won the NCAA Championship.
• The Blue & Gray is now 4-3 in shootouts in the NCAA Championship and 1-1 in quarterfinal shootouts.

Up Next Georgetown will face the winner of second-seeded Washington and 10th-seeded St. Louis on Friday in the NCAA Semifinal at WakeMed Park in Cary, North Carolina. The game will be broadcast live on ESPNU and live stats will be available at GUHoyas.com. Time and ticket information will be released in the coming days.

Be sure to give the new episode a listen, and follow your favorite Casual Hoya podcast, just in case you haven’t already.

HOYA SAXA! Best of luck!