Senior attack Steve Dusseau led the Georgetown lacrosse team to victory in a 13-7 win over Bucknell, and had a career-high nine goals in yesterday’s game. The Hoyas extended their opening winning streak to seven games, the longest in Georgetown history.
Last year Georgetown played Bucknell in Lewisberg, Pa. and soundly defeated the Bison 13-6. The scoring was spread around in that game, however, with Dusseau only scoring three, leaving this year’s Bison team somewhat unprepared for Dusseau’s unrelenting scoring fest in Wednesday’s game. “It’s tough to bring your A-game every time, but we had it when we needed it,” Head Coach Dave Urick said.
Georgetown dominated the offense by maintaining possession of the ball throughout most of the game. However, the Hoyas scoring was evenly distributed throughout the four quarters, with three goals in each of the first three quarters and four in the fourth. At half-time, the score stood at 6-4 after Bucknell junior midfield Rob Lane threw in goal with 1:24 remaining. Penalties were few and far between in the first half, but when the Bison became frustrated in the middle of the third quarter, an intense time-out pep talk psyched them up to play rough through the end of the second half.
“If you see Dusseau with the ball, just … check him because you know he’s going to the cage,” a Bison player said in the huddle. Checking was the least of the penalties that plagued both teams during the fourth quarter. Bucknell sophomore defenseman Brendan Fitzgibbons was sidelined for 30 seconds with a technical foul. On the extra man advantage, Dusseau scored his eighth goal of the game on an assist from senior attack Doug Staab with 13:34 remaining in the game. Less than three minutes later, Dusseau dropped in his ninth and final goal assisted by junior attack Jordan Vettoretti.
Later, first-year midfield Andy Corno scrambled for the ball on the face-off and junior defenseman Kyle Sweeney checked a Bison player to the ground picking up a loose ball push penalty on the Hoyas with 10:33 remaining in the game.
A minute later Bucknell drew a penalty on another loose ball push, followed by a moving pick penalty with 9:18 left. The Hoyas tossed the ball to Dusseau, but the Bison defense formed an impenetrable wall, not allowing him to add to his already high numbers.
An aggressive Fitzgibbons drew his second penalty for slashing and on the one minute extra man advantage for the Hoyas, senior midfield Phil Vincenti whipped the ball past the goalie for Georgetown’s 12th goal with 7:32 remaining. Within the next minute, junior attack Mike Hammer drew a penalty for unnecessary roughness, hitting a man out of bounds. Bucknell with the advantage, scored its sixth goal of the game with 6:30 to go.
Hammer was penalized a second time with a technical foul call leaving him in the box for 30 seconds, which was followed by a slashing penalty on Bucknell first-year attack Chris Cara. With one man out, Bucknell continued their attempt at a comeback scoring their seventh goal at the 3:58 mark.
The Hoyas lead quickly returned to six when sophomore midfield Walid Hajj scored after two unsuccessful shots by Dusseau. The score with 2:05 left in the game stood at 13-7, which would be the final in the Hoyas’ victory.
“We’re shooting the ball well, that’s something we work on every day in practice. We’ve really come together in the last couple of games,” Dusseau said about his undefeated team.
When asked about how rough his opponents were on him, Dusseau said, “We’ve been getting smacked around all year, but we’ve been weight training for that. It’s a battle.”
“I hope we keep winning and play a little better offense. I give credit to our defense, we came together and beat a good Bucknell team today,” he said.
“I try to look for a god match. Hammer gets the ball to me in front of the cage and gets me good looks,” Dusseau said when asked how he felt about being such a scoring force.
Urick said that Bucknell gave them more trouble than he expected them to, and that he was not pleased with the Hoyas defense.
Georgetown will look to continue their winning streak to eight games when they host No. 20 Brown University on Harbin Field this Saturday. “Brown is around the corner, they are playing Yale today. We only have two home games left, and Brown will be tough,” said Urick.
