Following a season-opening victory against Ocean State rival Bryant University, the men’s soccer team defeated George Washington University 2-1 in overtime Friday. The Colonials stormed back in the second half to tie the game and put the Bears on the ropes, but midfielder Rodrigo D’Andrea ’20 ended the contest with a golden goal just three minutes into overtime.
“It was a good game, and I thought we played well from the start,” D’Andrea said. “We created a lot of chances and could have put them away a bit earlier, but obviously everything worked out in the end.”
Both teams’ offenses took a few minutes to settle into the game. But Daniel Schiller ’20, who scored the game-winning goal against Bryant (0-4-1) last week, put the Bears (2-1) on the board in the tenth minute. Schiller intercepted a weak pass and pushed the ball toward the goal box before finding John Vrablic ’21, who launched a low shot toward the goal that could not be controlled by GW’s (2-3) goalkeeper. Schiller capitalized on the mistake and was able to give Bruno an early lead.
“It feels amazing to be able to get the goal that gets us in front,” Schiller said. “The goals feel great, but we’d rather win by bigger margins. And there’s more to come in the future.”
Moments later, Schiller again intercepted a pass and launched a shot but was contained by the Colonials for a goal kick. Throughout the first half, Bruno was able to pierce through the GW defense and created several offensive opportunities. Toby Howell ’19 knocked a header in the 20th minute that barely sailed wide, and Nathan Plano ’21 earned an open shot in the 26th but was ultimately called offsides.
At the other end of the field, the Bears’ defense, assisted by rookie goalkeeper James Swomley ’22, stymied the Colonials and did not allow a shot until the 37th minute. GW midfielder Max Holdsworth managed to wrestle his way through the Brown defense in the 41st minute to create an open shot, but the ball edged left of the net to keep the Bears in front.
At halftime, Brown held a slim one-goal lead, but outpaced the Colonials in both shots on goal and corner kicks, each by margins of 4-0.
GW came out of the locker room much more aggressively in the second period and occupied the Bears’ zone for much of the first few minutes. But Bruno’s defense was able to hold back the Colonials’ surge and regain momentum. In the 51st minute, D’Andrea missed two promising shots on net, and Schiller wasn’t able to put a close one-on-one shot away in the 53rd.
Jackson Goebel ’20 managed to sneak through the defense on a corner kick in the 63rd minute and force a clean header mere feet from the net, but the shot was powerfully knocked away by GW’s netminder.
In the 71st minute, the Colonials tied the game on their first shot on goal of the match when Joshua Yurasits corralled a crossing pass and placed the ball past the reach of Swomley in the top right corner of the net.
Neither team could capitalize on scoring opportunities and break the tie in the final minutes of regulation, and the game went into to overtime knotted at one.
In the extra period, the Bears were the more aggressive team from the start, launching a few off-target shots on goal to break the ice. Just three minutes into overtime, D’Andrea pushed the ball deep into the Colonials’ territory, shook off a defender and sent a low shot toward the bottom right corner of the net for the game-winning goal.
“It feels amazing,” D’Andrea said. “But now we are on to the next game.”
“For the past two years we’ve had similar starts where we come out really hot,” Schiller said. “This year, we’re looking to keep this streak going for a while so we don’t have a dip halfway through the season.”
The Bears are set to travel to California to play San Diego State University Friday.
