With 11 minutes remaining in Wednesday’s game, the Georgetown men’s lacrosse team (3-5, 0-1 Big East) seemed poised to pull off an upset win over No. 2 Loyola (7-1, 3-0 Patriot League). Junior attack and co-captain Reilly O’Connor had given the Hoyas a 9-8 advantage with 11:27 remaining. But Loyola responded to score two goals, including the game winner with less than a minute left.

It was a back-and-forth game that included four lead changes and seven ties. Although Georgetown maintained possession of the ball, Loyola’s prolific offensive was able to get shots on transition which lifted them to the win. After winning their first two games of the season, the Hoyas have dropped five of their last six.

The Hoyas, coming off of a 15-7 loss to St. John’s on March 15, looked to minimize turnovers because the Greyhounds are known to exploit their opponents’ mistakes. Georgetown Head Coach Kevin Warne thought that his team performed well in this regard.

“Our guys were playing hard,” Warne said. “They were scrapping on the loose 50/50 [ground] balls and did the little things today more than we have in the past couple of weeks. Hopefully, they learn from this experience. … If we do this all the time, our chances to have success are greater.”

Georgetown opened the game in commanding fashion, scoring two goals in the first minute. Freshman midfielder Devon Lewis scored at 14:08, and redshirt senior defender and co-captain Tyler Knarr won the resulting faceoff and scored an unassisted goal six seconds later. But Georgetown was unable to maintain this momentum.

Loyola was quick to answer. The Greyhounds scored on their first two shots of the game to eliminate the Hoyas’ 2-0 advantage. The Hoyas regained the lead at 7:26 when senior attack Jeff Fountain wrapped around the cage for a diving goal. Loyola scored a goal late in the first quarter to tie the game 3-3.

But Georgetown responded early in the second quarter when O’Connor nearly connected on his second goal of the game but his shot hit the post. The Hoyas would not be denied, however, and 10 seconds later, junior attack Bo Stafford scored on an extra-man opportunity. Although Loyola went on a two-goal run afterwards, freshman attack Peter Conley scored two goals of his own at 8:01 and 4:18 to give Georgetown the 6-5 lead — an advantage it would hold at halftime.

While Georgetown was successful on its only extra-man opportunity, Loyola struggled and was unable to score on any of its four opportunities. Georgetown was able to stave off Loyola in both of their man-ups during the second quarter, in large part due to redshirt junior goalkeeper Jake Haley’s performance. Haley made crucial saves in these situations, diffusing several Greyhound scoring opportunities on transition or unsettled situations.

Warne was pleased with how Haley anchored the Hoyas’ defense.
“I think tonight was Jake’s best game,” Warne said. “He made some plays on occasion that helped us, and I think he bailed us out especially on man-down [situations].”

In the third quarter, junior midfielder Charlie McCormick stretched Georgetown’s lead back to two, scoring with 11:30 remaining. However, Loyola went on a three-goal run at the end of the third quarter and recaptured the lead, 8-7.

Lewis scored the first goal of the fourth quarter and his second goal of the game to even the score at 8-8 with 11:27 left in the game. Knarr won the next faceoff and transitioned the ball down the field to Stafford, who then assisted O’Connor at 11:19. Loyola answered with the equalizer at 7:55. After a scoring drought of more than six minutes, Loyola scored the final goal with 52 seconds left in the game, bringing the score to 10-9. Georgetown regained possession off of another faceoff won by Knarr, but it could not get a shot on goal in the remaining time.

Although Loyola walked away with the victory, Warne was impressed by each player’s contributions. Haley’s performance in goal and Knarr’s creation of important offensive opportunities helped Georgetown maintain a fairly even footing with Loyola.

“Tyler is learning how to make better decisions with the ball,” Warne said. “He realizes [now] that he did his job, [and he needs to] get the ball to our attack and let us go from there. … When we have a consistent goalie and a good faceoff guy, the chances of us winning increase dramatically.”

Warne thinks that the game was a good indication of how far his team has come during the season.

“We just have to be sure that we do the right things, stay the course, understand the game plan and like I told the guys in the huddle, we don’t need heroes — we need plays,” Warne said. “So if we can follow that and really challenge each other over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be in good shape.”

Georgetown will return to the field March 25 when it faces off against Villanova.