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Top-Ranked Virginia Falls to Georgetown in NCAA Final on Penalty Kicks

CARY, N.C. – Georgetown (20-1-3) captured the 2019 NCAA College Cup Championship by outlasting Virginia (21-2-1), 7-6 in a penalty kick shootout. The two teams each scored three goals in regulation before going scoreless in two overtime sessions at Sahlen's Stadium on Sunday night (Dec. 15).

CARY, N.C. – Georgetown (20-1-3) captured the 2019 NCAA College Cup Championship by outlasting Virginia (21-2-1), 7-6 in a penalty kick shootout. The two teams each scored three goals in regulation before going scoreless in two overtime sessions at Sahlen’s Stadium on Sunday night (Dec. 15).
 
Virginia erased deficits of 2-1 and 3-2 in regulation to force its fifth overtime match of the season. The Cavaliers found themselves trailing by a goal with 9:37 remaining in the match before the College Cup’s Most Outstanding Player, Daryl Dike (Edmond, Okla.), scored his third goal of the College Cup. The sophomore striker took a rebound off his own shot and buried the final equalizing goal into the top of the net with 4:51 left in regulation. 

The two overtime sessions saw a total of five shots, three from the Hoyas and two from the Cavaliers. Only one of the attempts landed on target, an Irakoze Donasiyano (Roanoke, Va.) shot that was punched away by Georgetown keeper, Tomas Romero, in the first overtime.
 
Both teams were successful on their first six penalty kick attempts and Georgetown’s Aidan Rocha put the Hoyas up 7-6 in the seventh round. Romero guessed right on an Axel Gunnarsson’s attempt to the left side of the goal to clinch National Championship in a best-of-five shootout format. 
 
The Cavaliers received successful penalty kicks from Joe Bell (Wanaka, New Zealand), Daniel Steedman (Glasgow, Scotland), Donasiyano, Andreas Ueland (Byrne, Norway), Nathaniel Crofts (Sheffield, England) and Bret Halsey (Sterling, Va.). 
 
Steedman had Virginia’s first equalizer in the 58th minute when he scored on a shifty move in the box after receiving a slip pass from Donasiyano. 

 
It was the Cavaliers who had the initial lead of the match when Bell’s shot from outside the box in the 10th minute deflected off a Georgetown defender and into the right side of the goal. The tally was his seventh goal of the season and third of the NCAA Tournament.

 
The shot by Bell was Virginia’s first attempt of the match and it marked the second time in this year’s College Cup that the Cavaliers have scored on their first shot attempt.
 
The go-ahead Georgetown goals in the 22nd minute and the 81st minute were the fourth and fifth times this season Virginia trailed this season.
 
The National Championship match officially goes down as a loss despite the two teams finishing the two overtimes even at three. The 21 wins by Virginia are the third most in school history and the most under head coach George Gelnovatch.
Additional Notes
• In a matchup of the No. 1 and No. 2 defenses in the county, the combined six goals were most in an NCAA final since 1980.
• Georgetown is the only school to score three goals on Virginia this season.
• The Cavaliers allowed 13 goals in 24 matches in 2019.
• Virginia trailed in a match for the first time since Nov. 17, the ACC Championship against Clemson also played in Cary, N.C.. Virginia hadn’t trailed for 420 minutes until Daniel Wu’s goal in the 22nd minute.
 
NCAA College Cup All-Tournament Team
Daryl Dike – Most Outstanding Offensive Player
Joe Bell 
Daniel Steedman
Henry Kessler
Colin Shutler

 

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