Photo credit: Greg Fiume
Men’s soccer finished the season on a high note with a 3-1 win over George Mason on Saturday afternoon at home.
The Revolutionaries (4-9-4, 2-5-1 A10) were celebrating Senior Day and Alumni Day, garnering them one of their largest home crowds of the season. The Revs gave the fans something to cheer about quickly, scoring all three of their goals in the first half before seeing out the rest of the match.
“I thought the way we started the game in the first 30 minutes, we deserved the win,” GW head coach Craig Jones said. “Then we just had to work hard for the last 60 minutes.”
GW put some early pressure on the Patriots (5-7-3, 2-5-1 A10) and the pressure began to pay off in the 12th minute when senior midfielder Tim Neumann found freshman forward George Vincent at the back post, who put his header wide but won a corner kick. On the ensuing corner, freshman defender Joe Liebe found himself wide open but couldn’t put the header home.
But just two minutes later, graduate student midfielder Will Turner had a cross blocked and saw the ball fall back to him. He brought it down off his chest, snuck past a defender and volleyed it home for his team-leading fourth goal of the season.
Turner has been a much needed veteran presence on an otherwise young squad and has statistically been the team’s most productive player, with three assists to go with his goal tally. Two of his four goals this year came in the last two matches of the season, which coincided with him playing on the right wing rather than his normal central midfield position.
“He’s got a good engine and we know he can dribble,” Jones said. “I just thought that centrally he was running into too many players and turning it over a lot. Putting him out wide we knew he had the engine to do both sides, offense and defense. And we knew he could beat guys on the dribble.”
Before the crowd could catch their breath, GW struck again. Vincent played a through ball to Neumann in the 17th minute, who powered the ball past an onrushing junior goalkeeper Jaume Salvado. Immediately Neumann knew how to celebrate, running towards the GW bench and embracing his teammates en masse.
“I’m so grateful for all my teammates, for all my coaches,” Neumann said. “So I just wanted to celebrate with them and share the moment with them and that was the best way to celebrate.”
Even if a large, disorganized group hug might be a common celebration in soccer, that doesn’t make it any less special. Four years ago, Neumann moved to DC from Germany. His home away from home became the GW Soccer Field and his new family was the soccer team. Even amidst a tough season, Neumann and the rest of the team were able to find joy in his goal.
“After he’d done the huddle with the other guys he gave me a hug,” Jones said. “And that’s a special moment because he’s been with me for four years. We went through COVID, we went through some of that stuff.”
36 seconds later, the roles reversed. This time, Neumann found Vincent on a deep cross and the Englishman acrobatically volleyed it in for GW’s third goal in four minutes and the first of his college career. Now it was Vincent’s turn to run to the bench to celebrate with his friends.
But first, he had important business to attend to. Sitting in the crowd fresh off the flight from London (no seriously, she still had her suitcase) was his mom watching him play in person for GW for the first time. So of course Vincent needed to blow her some kisses.
“I just offered to fly his mom and dad in for every game because obviously he’s going to score if they’re here.” Jones said.
Vincent established himself as the starting striker earlier this season and his overall play has been strong even if the goals haven’t been there. He is one of many young players that GW will look to for production next fall.
After a few minutes of processing that the Revs had their largest lead since the final game of the regular season last year (also a 3-0 lead over George Mason), GW came back to earth a bit. In the 29th minute, Patriots sophomore midfielder Asparuh Slavov dribbled across the top of the box and laid it off to senior midfielder Henry Wachsman, who curled it to the far post and in. It was now 3-1 and Mason got their moment to celebrate.
The Revs recognized that the Patriots weren’t just going to roll over and they couldn’t coast for the rest of the game. The alarm bells really started going off in the 40th minute after graduate student midfielder Luis Maestre pinged a free kick off the crossbar. This was immediately followed by a golden chance for Mason that GW redshirt senior goalkeeper Duncan Wegner saved well by coming out and making himself big.
Just a few minutes after that at the other end, GW’s senior forward Demi Amigun got on the end of a flick but saw his shot saved well by Salvado. Moments later, Amigun found himself in another dangerous area but was unable to put his flicked header past Salvado.
The Patriots made it clear they were not going down without a fight and came out on the front foot in the second half, looking to pin GW in and test Wegner. However, the Revs backline held strong and didn’t concede anything soft to Mason.
GW junior defender Sean Vaghedi broke the Patriots pressure in the 53rd minute with a cut in and low shot from outside the box that gave Salvado a bit of trouble but never posed any real danger. After not seeing the field last year because of an injury, Vaghedi quietly put together a solid year playing the thankless position of outside back, mostly on the left but he spent some time on the right as well.
In the 61st minute, the Revolutionaries had the opportunity to reestablish a three goal lead with a penalty kick. Mason junior defender Javi Sanchez got tangled up with GW freshman midfielder Ben Hissrich in the penalty area, conceding a penalty. Graduate student midfielder Nacho Alastuey stepped up to take it and put it low to the goalkeeper’s right. Salvado dove the right way and did well to save it, keeping his team within two goals.
The Patriots continued to press on but struggled to find any success offensively as the Revs defense stifled them. I would be remiss not to mention the pure chaos and physicality that this game descended into for stretches. George Mason had seven (!) yellow cards to go with a red card earned by sophomore midfielder Nicholas Prioli, which came after he needlessly kicked up at a GW player while laying on the ground in the 87th minute.
Unfortunately for George Mason, the number of times the referee needed to brandish a card and wave the athletic trainer onto the field in a single motion did not affect the final score and the Revs came away with the win.
This win means GW started and ended their season on an unbeaten streak, which can provide the team some solace considering they did not win any games in between. As much as the team struggled, they had 16 newcomers after losing two of the best players in recent program history (Oscar Haynes Brown and Tom Cooklin) after last season. The Revs have a solid young core, starting with freshman defender Colin Prendergast, who looked older than his years in his first collegiate season. Midfielders Nico Medina and Ben Hissrich settled into important roles as well, and once attackers Louis Saville and George Vincent found their scoring touch, the offense flashed its potential.
“The group has gotten through those tough moments and they stuck together so I think culturally we’re in a good place.” Jones said. “We just need a little bit more quality probably so we’ll bring in some new guys for next year. This group will be good.”
From a personal perspective, this was a bittersweet game for me. It was the last GW soccer game I will cover as a student before I graduate next spring. Anyone who knows me knows that GW soccer is incredibly special to me and paying close attention to the program has been one of the highlights of the last four years.
I will never forget commentating the first game of the 2021 spring season as my teeth literally chattered on air, nor will I forget sitting in the bathroom of my dorm talking with Jonesy over the phone after Oscar Haynes Brown scored four goals in one game to end the 2021 fall season. And of course there’s the backheel that Carter Humm scored to tie it at 3 on a Friday night at Navy last year. I can now confirm that I was running around my dorm like a lunatic celebrating that goal and my roommates likely thought I needed to have my head examined. And then there’s last week when I decided to go home to Pennsylvania for a weekend so I could watch a GW team on an 11-game winless streak play a fellow A10 cellar dweller. Why? I’m honestly not sure I could give you a good answer other than I love watching GW soccer. Naturally, they broke that winless streak, which you are welcome for (my undefeated record at GW soccer away games remains intact).
I’m very thankful for everyone who has read my GW soccer coverage over the last few years and it wouldn’t have been possible without the access and support the team provided me. I hope that you guys enjoyed reading what I had to say.
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