No. 15 Loyola 8, No. 19 Georgetown 7
Georgetown players dropped to their knees with the kind of emotion reserved for playoff games when the final whistle blew in the Hoyas’ heartbreaking one-goal home loss to Loyola on Saturday.
They had good reason, as the 8-7 decision all but assured there will be no postseason for the second straight year at Georgetown, which dropped to 5-6 overall and 1-3 in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference. The defeat ensured the Hoyas can do no better than tie the Greyhounds (7-4, 4-1 ECAC) at the top of the conference standings, thus eliminating them from contention for an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
“We were supposed to come out here and just give it all we had,” said junior midfielder Andrew Brancaccio (Georgetown Prep). “We did that, I thought, just sometimes the ball didn’t bounce our way, and we had a lot of chances. At least we tried our hardest, that’s all we can ask for.”
A week after being shutout against Fairfield, Brancaccio scored his team-high third goal of the afternoon with 2:17 remaining to put the Hoyas one score away from sending the game into overtime after they had trailed 7-4 earlier in the fourth quarter.
But as time expired, Brancaccio saw his long-range effort smothered by Loyola goalkeeper Jake Hagelin (10 saves), who seconds before also denied Scott Kocis (one goal) from point-blank range.
The Greyhounds built their cushion off a career-high five goals by Cooper MacDonnell and a dominating performance by John Schiavone (Good Counsel High), who won 13 of 19 face-offs.
“We were fighting an uphill battle when you don’t face-off as well as you’d like to,” said Hoyas head coach Dave Urick. “That put a little more pressure on our defense, and eventually that takes its toll.”
Brancaccio netted his first goal at the 11:33 mark of the third quarter, giving the Hoyas a 3-1 lead. But Loyola answered with six of the next seven goals, including three in a span of two minutes, 45 seconds – two by MacDonnell – to reclaim the lead.
MacDonnell, who has 27 goals on the season, registered his fifth of the day with 3:32 to put the Greyhounds back up by two, 8-6, after Georgetown had cut the lead to one.
“[Keeping spirits up], that’s something as a staff we’re going to be having to deal with,” said Urick. “I think we have enough character on this team with guys like Chris Taylor, Barney Ehrmann and Craig Dowd that’ll keep things in perspective, and realize we’ve got three lacrosse games left against three very good teams, and an opportunity to try and get better each week show people that maybe we are a little bit better than our record indicates.”
