The day was wet, the field muddy, the fans and players soaked. The Georgetown men’s lacrosse team’s second home game of the season, against the Naval Academy, was moved to the Navy Marine Corps Memorial Stadium due to field conditions, but Navy’s field didn’t offer much improvement. Players ran through puddles scattered across the grass, and defensemen and goalies on both teams were covered in mud from the destroyed areas around the goals.
That didn’t deter senior defenseman Brodie Merrill, who had watched Queen’s performance on the DVD “Live Aid” to pump him and his teammates up the night before the game. His plan proved successful, as the Hoyas defeated Navy 11-6 in what turned out to be an all-weekend affair.
After last week’s loss to Duke, Georgetown came out ready to play. Senior players Andy Corno and Merrill both felt they had one of their best weeks of practice.
“We haven’t been the most consistent team in the world this year,” Merrill said. “The only remedy for inconsistency is to practice hard day in, day out. That was our mentality the week prior to Navy.”
“It is a lot easier to get 50 guys moving in the same direction when you are coming off a loss,” Corno added. “This week we had 50 guys working hard. We have got to keep that going the rest of the year.”
That mentality and an intense week of practice clearly paid off. The Hoyas started strong and completely dominated the first quarter.
“I think we played with a greater sense of urgency against Navy [than against Duke],” Merrill said. “We knew that beating Navy could potentially put us in a good position heading into the postseason.”
Tragically, the event was stopped short when one of the referees dropped to the ground from a heart attack. After players moved into their respective locker rooms and fans anxiously watched as medics carried referee Scott Boyle off the field on a stretcher, the game was postponed until the following day. Sadly, the 55-year-old Boyle died later in the hospital.
“Mr. Boyle was one of our favorite refs,” Corno said. “He knew a lot of us by our first names. We will truly miss him.”
The game was moved to the Naval Academy’s Rip Miller turf field on Sunday. Fortunately, Georgetown’s two goals from the day before, by senior midfielder Nick Miaritis and junior attack Trevor Casey, still counted. The game on Sunday began at the second quarter. Although momentum had slowed due to the delayed game, Georgetown didn’t falter. They came out ready to play and held a 6-1 advantage over Navy at the end of the second quarter, with goals from Miartis, Casey, junior midfielder Pete Cannon, and junior attackman Sean Denihan.
“It was hard to focus with all the distractions this weekend. I was very proud of how the team responded,” Corno said. “The upperclassman did a great job keeping everyone focused.”
Navy started out the third quarter strong and scored a goal within the first two minutes. Georgetown’s junior midfielder Garrett Wilson came back to score the Hoyas’ seventh goal of the game, with an assist from Casey. Junior attackman Derek Mills and Miaritis each had third quarter goals to stave off Navy with a six-goal lead. Georgetown’s quick transitions and strong start from the face-off kept them ahead. However, within the last second of the quarter, Navy scored again to cut the Hoya lead to 9-4.
Halfway through the fourth quarter, a Navy attackman took advantage of his wide-open position and scored unassisted. Miaritis came back and had his fourth goal of the game, unassisted, to give Georgetown another five-goal advantage. A minute later, Denihan threw a pass to Mills, who placed a beautiful shot in the upper-right-hand corner of the net. After a Georgetown timeout, Navy came back with 24 seconds left to score the final goal of the game.
The Hoyas clearly dominated the entire game, out-shooting Navy 34 to 28 and recording both groundball (41-30) and face-off (10-9) advantages.
“Last week Duke wanted it more; this week we did and it showed,” Corno said.
The Hoyas’ next game will be played this Saturday, April 9, against the University of Vermont at Manhasset, NY.
