No. 16 Navy 10, Georgetown 8
Tommy Phelan was down to just one good leg for a short spell. But that didn’t stop the Navy senior from making a career-high 15 saves in his first start of the year as the 16th-ranked Midshipmen (7-3) snapped a five-game losing streak to Georgetown with a 10-8 win at the Hoyas’ Multi-Sport Field.
“It was right above the left knee,” said Phelan of Georgetown junior Andrew Brancaccio’s third-quarter shot. “My left leg just went numb. I tried to get up on both legs, but I could really only get up on one.”
Navy head coach Richie Meade’s surprise move in the cage was effective. But it was opportunistic play earned Navy its first win over Georgetown since 2004, preventing the Hoyas (3-5) from rallying and getting back to .500 for the season.
On three different occasions, Georgetown’s extra-man opportunities turn into goals for the visitors, the last midway through the fourth quarter when Tim Paul (2 goals, 2 assists) found Geoff Leone (2 goals) on the break for an 8-6 lead.
“That’s a little tough to overcome, there’s no doubt about that,” said Hoyas head coach Dave Urick. “That’s just something that we can’t live with in a game like this. It’s bad enough to have it once but three of them, that’s just a breakdown that we cannot afford.”
Paul delivered the knockout blow with his second of two unassisted goals for a 9-7 lead and then feeding Bruce Nechanicky (Good Counsel High) to make it 10-7 with 3:14 left.
“Last time I was here I tore my ACL,” said Nechanicky. “I just wanted to come here and have a big game and a big win. Sometimes we lack energy in our team. We need that energy to get that spark.”
Brendan Connors (game-high 3 goals) answered Dan D’Agnes’ game-opening tally with Navy’s first two scores, and then added his third as the Midshipmen scored consecutive goals to open their biggest lead of the game, 6-2, late in third quarter.
With Craig Dowd (1 goal, 3 assists) running the offense from behind the net, Brancaccio (2 goals) and Chris Taylor each tallied in the final half-minute of played to trim the deficit to 6-4 entering the final period, and they cut margin to one three times but could not find a game-tying strike.
“It’s hard because we were kind of riding a high,” said Taylor of Georgetown’s one-goal, overtime win over Harvard three days prior. “We were starting to get our confidence back… We kind of came out a little bit flat today.”
