Pirates Host No. 1 Georgetown on FS1

South Orange, N.J. – The Seton Hall Pirates will host the No. 1-ranked Georgetown Hoyas to Owen T. Carroll Field on Wednesday night. The game will be a rematch of last season's BIG EAST Tournament Final in which the Pirates emerged victorious, 2-1. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on FS1 with Dave Popkin and Monika Moore on the call.

All home matches are free and are open to the public. If entering a campus building, per the university's current indoor mask mandate, all individuals (vaccinated and unvaccinated) are required to wear a mask at all indoor, nonresidential, on-campus University settings, except when alone or dining.

Greek Night
Calling all Seton Hall Greek Life! Come cheer on the Pirates as they take on the Georgetown Hoyas in a rematch of last year's BIG EAST Championship game. Get to Owen T. Carroll Field early as free soft pretzels and cookies will be handed out to SHU students while supplies last!

LAST TIME OUT

After a postponement of The Hall's scheduled match with Butler on Saturday, Seton Hall's last action was Sept. 28 at Fordham, a game in which the Pirates fell in overtime, 3-2. Eight minutes into the match, the Rams' Florian Deletioglu received a pass from Max Rogers outside the Pirate penalty area where Deletioglu struck a long shot past the outstretched dive of Andreas Nota and into the net for the first goal of the match. Fifteen minutes later, the combination of Rogers to Deletioglu struck again with Rogers ricocheting a shot off the crossbar and back into play where Deletioglu was able to get his foot on it and double the Fordham lead.

Trailing in the 60th minute, the Pirates were awarded a penalty kick after a Ram handball in the box. For the second time this season, Johannes Pex (Stephansposching, Germany) stepped up to bury the PK. A mere 62 seconds later, the Pirates were again able to draw a penalty in the Ram box and again Pex delivered for The Hall from the penalty spot.

Just under four minutes into the first extra period, Matt Sloan crossed a deep ball into the Pirate box where Rogers was able to get his foot on it for the game-winner.

SCOUTING – No. 1 Georgetown (8-0-0, 2-0-0)

The consensus top-ranked team in the nation, Georgetown is unbeaten to open the 2021 season. Currently, the Hoyas are outscoring opponents 17-3 and have pitched five shutouts in eight games.
Most recently, the Hoyas are coming off a 3-1 victory at home over DePaul to move to 2-0-0 in BIG EAST play.
In just his first year at Georgetown after transferring from St. Louis, Stefan Stojanovic has gotten off to roaring start scoring five goals to lead the Hoyas. Joining Stojanovic atop the Georgetown offensive leaderboard is last year's BIG EAST Midfielder of the Year and 2020 First Team All-America honoree, Dante Polvara. Polvara has three goals and three assists to his credit so far this season.
In net, Georgetown has two-time BIG EAST Goalkeeper of the Year and 2020 First Team All-America selection Giannis Nikopolidis. After being selected as the conference's preseason Goalkeeper of the Year this season, Nikopolidis has played in five games for the Hoyas, with three shutouts and a .40 GAA.
The Hoyas lead the all-time series 21-17-4. The Pirates took the most recent matchup when they defeated then-No. 2 Georgetown, 2-1, on April 17, at Shaw Field for their first BIG EAST Championship since 1991.

NEWS & NOTES

The Pirates are 1-2-1 all-time against the No. 1-ranked team in the nation. The Pirates most recently took on then-No. 1 Creighton in 2015 at home falling by a score of 4-2. The Hall's lone win over the top-ranked team in the nation came on Oct. 25, 1998, when the Pirates took down then-No. 1 UConn on the road, 2-1.
Last time these programs met, Seton Hall won its first BIG EAST Tournament Championship since 1991 in 2020 after defeating No. 2 ranked Georgetown, 2-1, in title game at Shaw Field. CJ Tibbling scored the game-winning goal in the 63rd minute. Camil Koreichi got the Pirates on board in the first half and Andreas Nota came up with a huge second half PK stop to preserve the 2-1 victory. It was the fifth BIG EAST title in program history.
Leading the BIG EAST and 25th in the nation with a team-leading 15 points, Johannes Pex converted his second and third penalty kicks of the season last time out at Fordham earning him a spot on the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll. The tallies for Pex were just 62 seconds apart and served as his second career multi-goal game with his first coming in last season's season-opener at NJIT. Pex also tallied twice and picked up an assist across wins against Delaware and NC State earning BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week honor (9/6). The junior was also named to College Soccer News' National Team of the Week. Pex was also selected to the conference's weekly honor roll following his three assists against NJIT (9/10).
Thirteen different Pirates have now found the back of the net this season with 27 assists on 22 total goals. The Hall had tallies from 12 different players last season.
As of Oct. 4, The Hall currently ranks 20th in the nation and is second in the BIG EAST in total goals (22). The Pirates also sit at the top of the conference and third in the nation in total assists (27).
The triumvirate of Luca Dahn, Denis Kelmendi and Johannes Pex has started in all but one game since the start of the 2020 season. In total, the trio has combined to miss just 258 minutes of a possible 2,396 minutes of game time, or just over 10 percent of action without all three on the pitch.
With assists against Providence, Raz Amir and Denis Kelmendi each picked up their respective fourth helpers on the season. Five different Pirates have at least three assists to their credit: Johannes Pex, JP Marin, Raz Amir, Denis Kelmendi and Jordan Jowers. Eleven Pirates have at least one helper on the campaign
The Pirates were picked second in the BIG EAST Conference Preseason Coaches Poll as the reigning BIG EAST champions were awarded 93 points including three first place votes. Georgetown took the top spot in the poll edging the Pirates by just five points while Creighton, the third team picked, was awarded 74 points.
CJ Tibbling was selected as the conference's Preseason Co-Offensive Player of the Year and was a unanimous selection for the Preseason All-BIG EAST squad. Tibbling is coming off a 2020 Second Team All-America selection as well as First Team All-BIG EAST honors. On the offensive end, Tibbling led the Pirates with seven goals and 17 points on the season to go along with three assists. With his seven tallies, Tibbling ranked second in the BIG EAST and 20th in the country in goals scored.
Luca Dahn was honored as the BIG EAST's Preseason Defensive Player of the Year and earned a spot Preseason All-BIG EAST team. Dahn was awarded a 2020 Second Team All-America selection as well as First Team All-BIG EAST honors. In his first year in a Seton Hall uniform, Dahn logged over 1500 minutes for The Hall and was on the pitch for all but nine minutes throughout the campaign. Despite lining up as a center back, Dahn also scored twice for The Hall while registering 12 shots on net, second best on the team.