After a controversial snub from the NCAA Tournament ended last season for the Hoyas, the Georgetown men’s lacrosse team has yet to come up with a signature win to boost their playoff resume in 2011.
Davey Emala has injected the Hoyas with energy, tallying a team-high 27 points. (Photo Courtesy of Georgetown Sports Information)
While such a win has been elusive, the unranked Hoyas have certainly come close. Regardless, entering the season ranked in the top-15 nationally makes losing four out of the season’s first seven games very disappointing.
“Certainly our expectations are always high, so having four losses is below what our expectations were for this team,” head coach Dave Urick said. “When you lose three games by a combined four goals, you are in those games, but we expected to have a few more wins.”
Earlier this month the Hoyas lost a heartbreaker to the currently No. 20 Harvard Crimson. The Hoyas trailed by four goals with less than three minutes left in the game, then went on a lightning three-goal rally to bring the score to within one with eight seconds left. Georgetown won the ensuing faceoff, but was unable to level the score before the end of regulation.
Just four days later, Georgetown traveled to Baltimore for the Face-Off Classic and a matchup with top-ranked Syracuse. The Hoyas trailed the Orange nearly all game, but with five seconds left junior Gerry Rielly scored a miraculous goal to send the contest into overtime. Unfortunately, Syracuse won the faceoff to start the extra period and did not relinquish possession as senior preseason All-American Stephen Keogh found the back of the net to give the Orange the 9-8 victory.
The most disappointing loss this season came this past weekend when the Hoyas fell to No. 4 Duke in Durham. After Duke tied the game at one-to-one early in the first quarter, the Hoyas scored five-unanswered goals, taking a distinct advantage. The Blue Devils rallied to bring the game to within three early in the second quarter, but senior captain Max Seligmann finished a designed play coming out of a timeout to give the Hoyas a 9-5 lead going into halftime.
The second half may as well have been a completely different game, however, as Duke became the aggressors and commanded play. Duke blitzed the Hoyas to start the half, scoring three goals in the first four minutes.
“We failed to clear the ball in the second half, which has been a concern for us all season, but against Duke it really came back to haunt us,” Urick said. “We rarely had the ball in the third quarter after jumping on them in the first half.”
The Hoyas were able to temporarily halt the onslaught as Reilly scored his second goal of the day with an assist from sophomore Davey Emala. Duke then clamped down on defense, holding Georgetown scoreless for the remainder of the third quarter while adding a tally of their own to make it a one-goal game entering the final frame.
The end of the quarter did not stop the Duke ambush, and the Blue Devils leveled the game early in the fourth then took the lead with 7:40 remaining. Duke scored the next two goals, bringing the score to 13-10, capping an 8-1 run. Perhaps most impressively, Duke held Georgetown scoreless for over 22 minutes during the comeback.
A late goal by senior captain Rickey Mirabito brought the Hoyas back to within one, but Duke won the ensuing faceoff and scored an empty-net goal to seal the Georgetown loss.
While the loss was a big blow to the Hoyas’ season, the game showed that two of the season’s surprising performers will continue to contribute.
“Davey Emala, from a scoring standpoint, has caught a lot of people’s attention, and Gerry Reilly has emerged as a big part of what we do from the wing on face-offs, as a defensive middie, and certainly the big goal he scored against Syracuse,” Urick said.
Emala has been a revelation on offense, earning two Big East Weekly Honor Roll awards for scoring five goals against both Harvard and Syracuse and tallying four against Duke.
Georgetown looks to get back on track this Friday at home against Navy. The Midshipmen will certainly be out for revenge after last season’s overtime loss at the hands of the Hoyas in Annapolis.
“Over the last few years our games with them have been very close. It doesn’t matter what either team’s record is at the time, it’s an intense contest with two evenly-matched teams and our guys need to realize that,” Urick said. “This season the teams are similar in that we’ve both lost some very close games and are looking to bounce back.”
This is a pretty terribly written article. C’mon Voice, I expect better.
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