The Georgetown men’s lacrosse team soundly defeated Loyola College 15-6 yesterday in their first victory against the Greyhounds since 1973. The victory greatly helps the No. 5 Hoyas in their quest for one of six at-large bids to the NCAA tournament in May.
After a slow first quarter, the Hoya offense exploded, scoring six consecutive goals in eight minutes and leaving the first half up 11-2. Senior All-American attack Steve Dusseau and sophomore midfield Walid Hajj led the flurry, scoring two goals each in the second quarter. In the third quarter, the Hoyas shut down the Greyhounds, who senior midfield Mike Kanach referred to as “the best attack unit we’ll see all year,” to coast into the fourth quarter with an 11 goal advantage.
Georgetown’s face-off men took 15 of 25 against junior Ryan Radonis, who had won 72 percent of his face-offs over Loyola’s past three games. Dusseau was the game-high scorer with four goals on the day and Hajj added three. It was the Hoyas’ second victory in 24 all-time meetings with the No. 11 Greyhounds. Georgetown’s record now stands at 10-1, 3-1 in the ECAC.
Georgetown’s has been in the hunt for at-large NCAA tournament qualification since they lost the ECAC’s automatic bid to UMass in a 16-13 upset last Saturday.
The Hoyas dug themselves into a hole early in the game, allowing the Minutemen to score eight goals in the first quarter, including four unanswered goals to open the contest. “It was the biggest game of the season for both teams, but especially for UMass since they’ve never beaten us,” Hajj said. “We came out a little flat, while they were really fired up.”
Dusseau scored three goals in the second quarter to help the Hoyas pull within three at the half. Though the Hoyas closed the gap to two with nine minutes remaining, they were unable to convert any of their eight shots on goal in the last portion of the fourth. UMass’ senior midfield Marc Morley closed out the scoring with a goal in the final minute of the game to give the Hoyas their first loss of the season.
“We didn’t do a great job of making shots, but we’ve told our guys all along that there will be days when the weather or a hot goalie will affect our shooting,” said Head Coach Dave Urick. “That’s why its important to always play great defense, and this was not a good defensive effort.”
“UMass deserved to win the game,” Urick continued. “They came out with a lot of determination and they had a lot of incentive to get that automatic bid. I would like to think that we had the proper amount of respect for them, but I don’t know that we had the proper amount of intensity. I’m not sure we had what we needed to play a game of that magnitude … especially defensively.”
The win against Loyola “has a fair amount of impact” on the Hoyas’ chances of selection for the NCAA tournament, according to Urick, but Georgetown will need a strong performance in their last two games to secure their spot. “We need to focus on playing hard and getting wins down the stretch so the selection committee has an easy time picking us and not scratching their heads,” Urick said.
“We need a lot of senior leadership and for the older guys to step up, not just Dusseau and [senior goalie Scott] Schroeder,” noted Hajj. “Sometimes they’ve stepped in and really won some games for us, but if we’re going to get these last games it’ll have to be more than just them.”
Georgetown travels to Rutgers on April 28 and closes the season at Syracuse on May 4.
