Senior midfielder Dan McKinney provided the golden goal in overtime on the road.
Ahead of Saturday’s matchup in the Battle at Bethpage, the Georgetown and St. John’s men’s lacrosse teams were trending in opposite directions. Behind the second-leading point scorer in Division I, junior attack Kieran McArdle, the No. 19 Red Storm (7-3, 2-2 Big East) had won four in a row, including an upset of Notre Dame — ranked No. 1 overall at the time — in South Bend, Ind. Meanwhile, theHoyas (5-6, 2-1 Big East) were outscored 3-0 in the fourth quarter of an 8-6 loss to Villanova on Wednesday and had lost three of their past four heading into Sunday.
Current form does not matter once the whistle blows, however, and the Blue and Gray were able to pick up a massive Big East overtime win behind do-it-all redshirtjunior defender Tyler Knarr’s 10 ground balls and Canadian sophomore attack Reilly O’Connor’s four goals. The most important play of the day came from senior midfielder Dan McKinney, whose goal with 3:24 left in overtime ended the game at 14-13.
“I thought the guys played hard,” Head Coach Kevin Warne said. “They never gave up, even when we were down a couple of goals. In a back and forth game like that, they didn’t allow themselves to get lost in the moment — they just worried about the next play and that’s what we tried to focus on.”
Both offenses came out firing from the start, and the Hoyas took an early 3-1 advantage behind goals from sophomore midfielder Joe Bucci, junior midfielder Grant Fisher and sophomore attack Bo Stafford. The Red Storm evened the score just 90 seconds later, but Georgetown’s sophomore class would not be denied, as O’Connor and midfielder Charlie McCormick scored to give the Hoyas a 5-4 lead after the first quarter.
Georgetown’s will was severely tested in the second frame, as St. John’s ripped off a 4-0 run to take an 8-5 lead. Warne’s squad was up for the challenge, though, and Bucci’s and O’Connor’s second goals of the game brought the halftime score to 8-7.
With seventeen goals and seventeen assists this season, O’Connor has thus far done a fantastic job picking up the slack left by injured senior attack and star Brian Casey. The senior captain has not played since he injured his leg back on March 16 against Providence.
“[Reilly’s] been awesome. He’s been our quarterback. He’s been our guy that gets everybody on the same page, does all the right things,” Warne said. “He’s really taken a leadership role in our offense.”
In their six loses this season, Georgetown has been abysmal on extra-man opportunities with only four goals in twenty-one chances. The Hoyas were 2-for-2 on the power play on Saturday, including on senior attack Jason McFadden’s goal with under a minute to play in the third. The goal helped Georgetown come back from their third two-goal deficit of the day and tie the game at eleven heading into the fourth.
In the final period, the Red Storm outshot Georgetown 19-6, but redshirt sophomore goalie Jake Haley stood tall in between the pipes, and Knarr won four out of five faceoffs. Knarr has been a revelation for the Hoyas on faceoffs all year long, and his .657 win percentage heading into Saturday was good enough for fourth-best in the country.
“No matter what happens you really want to do whatever it takes to get the ball and that’s really what it comes down to,” Knarr said. “[It’s about] hard work.”
The game appeared over with under thirty seconds to play, as St. John’s had possession of the ball and a 13-12 lead before senior defenseman Patrick Murray forced a turnover and flipped the ball to McCormick. The sophomore midfielder had a shot denied by St. John’s Jeff Lowman, who had replaced injured starting goalie Harry Burke at the half, but McCormick picked up his own rebound and tied the game with just over 10 seconds remaining.
The Red Storm would never get an opportunity to win the game in overtime, as Knarr won the opening faceoff, which allowed the Hoyas to call timeout. McKinney beat his man to the inside and scored the winner as the Hoyas improved to 2-1 in Big East play.
The Hoyas will be back in action on Sunday in South Bend against Notre Dame. The game will be televised on ESPNU at 11 a.m.
Hoya Staff Writer Carolyn Maguire contributed to this report.
