St John’s Falls to Rival G-Town

The Hoyas of Georgetown (4-1-3) come in sitting 5th in the Big East based on overall standings, today will be the first Big East Conference game for either side. The Hoyas are ranked nationally at #17 in the country. St. John’s (5-1-2) is unranked entering the match but coming in on a high after defeating Harvard University for the first time in school history. However, they sit in second place in the conference behind Xavier (7-2-0).

A win by SJU tonight would be the second highest-ranked team they will have defeated since Nov. of ’21 when they knocked off #11 Xavier.

A win would also snap a 7 game-win streak for the Hoyas over SJU in their rivalry. The long drought is one head coach Ian Stone would love to see end. While he will tell you Georgetown is an excellent program and a tough rival, he wouldn’t mind going back to the days of beating the Hoyas.

Jessica Garziano has a chance tonight to join the top five in points all-time for the Johnnies. She just needs a single assist or goal to enter the top half of the list. Garziano is having herself a season early on and gaining national attention from scouts and the media. She is hands down the best midfielder in the NCAA and will be a huge pick up for any NWSL team in the upcoming draft for the 2024 season. The graduate student has a very bright future ahead of her and I’m positive she will be winning many awards for her play and breaking records. Teams at the NWSL level can’t say they didn’t know; she is in the top 50 among all positions in D1 college right now.

The starting lineups for both sides are as follows:

Georgetown: GK Allie Augur, CB Brianne Riley, CB Alex Blair, LB Kaya Hanson, MD Eliza Turner, MD Julia Leas, MD Tatum Lenain, FWD Natalie Means, FWD Allie Winstanley, and FWD Henley Tippins

St. John’s: GK Marie O’Sullivan, RB Frederique St-Jean, CB Katherine Turner, CB Nicole Multer, LB Isabelle Aviza, MD Jessica Garziano, MD Lauryn Tran, MD Athina Sofroniou, MD Jailene DeJesus, FWD Jordyn Levy, and FWD Nicole Gordon

The bright spot in this matchup for the Johnnies was Jessica Garziano joining the top 5 all-time points leaderboard in school history. Unfortunately, for the Johnnies tonight wasn’t their night on the pitch. Georgetown came in and applied a ton of pressure all over the pitch causing their opponent to play balls quickly and sometimes too quickly for their own good. SJU had a number of unforced turnovers, missed runs, and looked disheveled on the pitch.

Just 7:36 into the match Allie Winstanley got the Hoyas on the board, for the early lead and they wouldn’t look back. They would get their second goal 51:24 into the match when Natalie Means scored off a corner kick misplay in the box.

Then the final nail in the coffin came at 69:15 when Grace Sherman found space after a bad throw-in by the Johnnies. The goal was assisted by Emma Davis, and it gave the Hoyas a 3-goal advantage till the Johnnies got one back late in the match.

Jessica Garziano found space in the Hoyas backline and unleashed one to the lower corner of the second post. The historic goal was assisted by teammates Isabelle Aviza and Nicole Gordon. The goal was scored at the 78:46 mark of the match and while the Johnnies did rev up their offense, they couldn’t find the net again. The goal was created by Jessica’s high soccer IQ and skill, she has this amazing ability to read the pitch and stay 5 moves ahead of everyone else if not more. She finds the tiny gaps, makes the runs defenders aren’t expecting and then uses her skills to finish off the chances she gets. She might be a midfielder, but her striking ability is on a different level and the fact that she can score inside the box or far outside the box is rare to see at the position. She keeps opponents on their toes and guessing, they just send numbers at her and hope to contain her.

The Hoyas came in and took care of their Big East rival extending the streak to 8 matches without conceding a point to SJU. The nationally ranked Hoyas improve to (1-0-0) and will return to action on Sunday, September 24th when they continue their road trip to Creighton. For St. John’s (0-1-0) they will head on the road to Storrs, CT to face UCONN (1-0-0) in another rivalry matchup. The match for the Johnnies will also be on September 24th and they will play at 1 p.m. UConn will be a challenge especially on the road; however, this St Johns team has a lot of talent and more than capable of righting the ship while down international standout Ava Collins of New Zealand.

Photo Credit: St. John’s Women’s Soccer