Photo Credit: GW Men’s Soccer
By Liam O’Murchu (@Liam_0__)
Men’s soccer continued their unbeaten start to the season with a 3-1 win over Stony Brook on Tuesday evening. The game started 90 minutes later than originally scheduled due to extreme heat but that did not slow down GW’s attack.
“I thought we were overall the better team on the day,” GW Head Coach Craig Jones said. “Obviously, it’s great to win and score three goals.”
The Revolutionaries (2-0-2) were paced by graduate student midfielder Will Turner in the attack and freshman defender Colin Prendergast in defense, both of whom finished with a goal, while Turner added on an assist.
Just three minutes in, the Revolutionaries had their first attacking foray when sophomore winger Alex Nicholson played a deep cross into Turner, who put a header back across the mouth of goal. Unfortunately for the Revs, the ball was just out of reach of freshman forward George Vincent. But they had sent their warning shot.
By the 15th minute, the Seawolves (1-3) had grown into the game and were finding some space in front of the GW center backs and putting some crosses in that gave GW trouble. Stony Brook’s first real chance came in the 12th minute when sophomore defender Jon Jelercic beat Nicholson to the end line and cut it back to freshman midfielder Alex Fleury, who put his shot over the crossbar.
After 10 minutes of jostling, Turner won an aerial duel, brought the ball down, and drove at the Stony Brook backline. The Nashville native held the ball for just long enough and slipped graduate student midfielder Nacho Alastuey in on goal. Alastuey made no mistake, taking the perfectly weighted ball in stride and side-footing it above onrushing Seawolves goalkeeper Edmond Kaiser in the 22nd minute.
The Revolutionaries had scored the first goal for the third time in four games this year and wasted no time doubling their lead. 20 seconds later, Vincent brought down a throw-in and laid it off to Turner, who slipped past senior defender Iker Alvarado with a stepover and fired a shot with his left foot low towards the near post. Kaiser was unable to deal with it and saw the ball go through his legs and into the net. Just like that the Revs were up two goals and Turner celebrated in the only appropriate way: by running to the corner and doing a forward roll immediately followed by finger guns, the celebration made famous by Irish striker Robbie Keane.
Turner spearheaded the GW attack all day by winning balls in the midfield and driving at the Stony Brook center backs, getting them on their heels and creating opportunities.
“He’s been super for us so far,” Jones said. “His energy, his work rate, obviously he’s scored some goals already for us. He’s really been like a box to box midfielder that maybe we haven’t had in the past, in terms of guys scoring from center mid.”
In the 32nd minute, the Revs drew a free kick on top of the box and Alastuey stepped up to take it. The playmaker from Zaragoza, Spain narrowly missed, grazing the top of the net with his curling shot.
After the two goals in a short span, Stony Brook began to threaten, punctuated by a pair of corners in the 38th minute. The first one was dangerously played into the near post, where redshirt senior goalkeeper Duncan Wegner saved it off the line. However, the Revs weren’t as lucky the second go around, as senior forward Olsen Aluc found a hole in GW’s zonal marking scheme and headed home a ball to the same spot as the first one.
With 7 minutes to go until halftime, this was a big goal for the Seawolves, who rode the momentum into halftime. They got a few good looks but were unable to convert as the game went into the break with GW up 2-1.
“Right before halftime, we gave up the goal and gave them a bunch of momentum,” Turner said. “We kind of dug ourselves a hole. But we went into halftime and knew we were all doing the right thing except for we gave them the corner and then we let them go to the same place on the corner kick twice in a row and we knew that was the problem, so we fixed it. In the second half we just came out and played our game instead of letting them dictate and took it from there.”
After halftime, GW looked comfortable and Alex Nicholson was creating trouble. It sounds weird to say about a sophomore, but the Newcastle, England native has been a steady veteran presence in attack for an otherwise young Revolutionaries squad and has looked good even if he only has one assist to show for it.
Another veteran presence, who entered the game at halftime for GW, is senior defender Lucas Matuszewski. If you have read my GW men’s soccer coverage before, you know that I am a big fan of his. His energy is infectious, whether it is screaming words of encouragement, celebrating big tackles like he just scored a goal, or helping his teammates up after suffering a hard foul. Matuszewski looked incredibly comfortable, reading the game and knowing where to be to stifle Seawolves’ attacks while picking out line breaking passes to spur attacks and winning seemingly every ball put into his penalty box.
But there is a reason the Pitt transfer, who is a captain, entered the game at halftime rather than starting. Matuszewski was carrying an injury in preseason and didn’t play in GW’s first two regular season games. In his spot have been two freshman center backs from Northern Virginia, John Matlock and Colin Prendergast. The freshman duo have been a steady presence in the back early on for a team who saw starting center back Aaron Kronenberg transfer to Denver.
“From what we saw in preseason and in the scrimmages,” Jones said. “We thought that the first year guys were good enough to play. That’s one of the things I say to recruits and I’ll continue to say it, I don’t really care what class they are. If they’re good enough they’re going to play.”
If you make it out to the Vern this year or are watching online, focus on the center backs for 15 or 20 minutes. You don’t always notice when a central defender is having a great game unless they are putting in last minute tackles or spraying passes around the field. But all three of the center backs competing for a starting spot right now are lifting the level of the team by doing the simple things right (as well as putting in a last ditch tackle when necessary) and it is truly a joy to watch.
Turner forced another turnover, drove at the defense and played Vincent through on goal in the 57th minute. Vincent slotted it home with his left foot but the flag went up for offside and GW remained in the lead by just one goal.
But two minutes later, the Revs won a corner kick and graduate student midfielder Conor Stephens played a deep inswinger to the back post, where Prendergast’s late run went untracked and he put the open header in for his first collegiate goal. He didn’t need a goal to validate his early season performances, but that put the cherry on top of his strong play heading into the second weekend of September. In case you needed more evidence of the Gonzaga grad’s importance to this team, he leads them in minutes played with 351.
There were a few half chances for each team in the final 20 minutes, but GW would hold on for their second win over Stony Brook in three all-time meetings. The heat played a role all day, as the temperatures pushed 100 degrees, which doesn’t account for the humidity and the fact that the game was being played on turf. The game was originally scheduled for 3 PM but yesterday was moved to 4:30 PM to account for the unseasonably warm temperatures.
Jones told me that the decision to change the start time was out of his hands, and was instead up to the sports medicine team, who decided that the game needed to be moved back.
“We’ve played in hotter, right?” Jones said. “It is what it is. We tried to move it because of the shade but it was just as hot at the start of the second half as it was [during the first half]. It would have started at three but I think the little bit of shade helped towards the end. But at that stage everybody’s fatigued anyway.”
Turner took a bit of a different tone when asked about the heat. Also, keep in mind that Turner is from Nashville and is certainly no stranger to playing in this sort of heat.
“It was brutal.” Turner said. “It sucked. But I mean, what can you do? Once the sun came out in the second half and the shade was on the field that was really nice. It was 45 minutes of grueling heat and in the second half it was much more doable.”
After opening the season in the Mid-Atlantic with two home games and two road games, the Revolutionaries head off to California to take on San Diego State and San Diego, both of whom received votes in the most recent United Soccer Coaches poll.
“The main reason was to get the guys out there and do a trip together,” Jones said. “Because we have so many new guys, it’s a chance for us to bond early. So it was really a chance to play two quality teams on grass and it just so happens that both teams have started really well.”
“Life’s pretty good when you’re just playing soccer going to school,” Turner said. “So I’m just excited and happy to go to California and play against some good teams at two big stadiums on nice grass fields.”
They take on SDSU at 10PM on Friday and San Diego at 4PM on Sunday. The first game can be streamed on Aztec Digital Network while the second one can be streamed on ESPN+.
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