The site was Manhasset High School in Manhasset, N.Y. The opponent was the University of Vermont. But it felt like home for the Georgetown men’s lacrosse team.

For four players, it was home.

Junior attack Sean Denihan, a 2002 graduate of Manhasset, returned to his alma mater to record one goal and one assist as the Hoyas beat up on Vermont for a 9-1 victory on Saturday afternoon.

The Catamounts of the America East conference (2-5, 0-2) proved no match for the fifth-ranked Hoyas (6-2, 2-0 Big East). Georgetown outshot Vermont by a 56-17 margin and held its opponent scoreless for 58 minutes of play.

Senior Rich D’Andrea, manning the Hoyas’ cage for 55 minutes, recorded a six-save shutout. The lone goal came with 1:33 to play, when backup goalie Miles Kass was in the crease for Georgetown.

At the opposite end of the field, the Hoyas barraged the cage but sophomore Pete Hein tallied 22 saves on the afternoon.

“We would have liked to score a few more goals,” Georgetown Head Coach Dave Urick said. “We still had opportunities to punch a few more in.”

Junior midfielder Pete Cannon, freshman midfielder Scott Kahoe and freshman attack Andrew Baird each scored twice.

Denihan’s goal was his 23rd of the season, a team best. Junior defender Reyn Garnett also contributed his first score of the 2005 campaign.

The teams were evenly matched for the first 15 minutes of play, with neither team getting on the scoreboard. Georgetown held a narrow advantage in first quarter shots, 8-7.

The Hoyas broke the silence in the second quarter, with Cannon scoring just under 1:30 into the period. The junior extended the Georgetown margin with a second goal less than three minutes later.

Late in the second, sophomore attack Trevor Casey scored for the 12th time this year, giving the Hoyas a 3-0 lead at intermission.

“We controlled the play the first half,” Urick said. “I had a feeling that we would eventually move away from them.”

Georgetown managed to do just that, opening up a 5-0 advantage before five minutes had elapsed in the second half. The Hoyas tacked on four more goals for good measure in the fourth quarter, including two within the closing seconds of play.

Supporters of freshman Dan D’Agnes and sophomores Christiaan Trunz and Danny Nolan, also natives of the Long Island, N.Y., town, made the crowd of 433 spectators partial to Georgetown.

Trunz took over all faceoff duties from senior Andy Corno and won 10 of 13 attempts.

The game site was a compromise midway between Washington, D.C., and Vermont. The two teams faced off at New Canaan, Conn., last spring, with Georgetown notching a 13-5 victory.

Forty-one players saw playing time against Vermont, enabling the coaching staff to test out much of the bench. Urick said that he was particularly pleased with the play of several of his second-string midfielders – juniors Wes Trice and Brian Hehir and sophomore Brad Neumann.

Trice, formerly a starter, spent the first half of this season recovering from shoulder surgery last summer.

The Hoyas return closer to the District on Wednesday, when they face off at Mount St. Mary’s (5-4, 4-0 MAAC) at 4 p.m.

Following that matchup, Georgetown plays three of its final four games at home against league rivals Loyola, Rutgers and Penn State.

“It’s a good thing – we’re finally getting to play some home games,” Urick said.