Georgetown junior attacker Brendan Cannon had only one thing on his mind.

And that was bad news for Princeton.

With just 30 seconds elapsed in sudden-death overtime, Cannon ran with the ball down the left sideline. He could have decided to take his time and set up the offense. After all, a Georgetown turnover would have given Princeton an opportunity to win the game on its next possession.

But Cannon’s mind was set. He shifted into a higher gear, sprinting past Princeton junior defender Dan Cocoziello in an all-or-nothing dash toward the goal. He made it to the crease, left his feet and fired the ball into the goal’s top left corner. In the blink of an eye, Cannon had given the Hoyas the win.

“[Cannon] doesn’t shy away from making a play, and that’s exactly what it took today to beat a very good team” Georgetown Head Coach Dave Urick said.

With the victory, the sixth-seeded Hoyas (12-2) advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals for the sixth consecutive season. They will play third-seeded Johns Hopkins (10-4) at Princeton on Saturday.

The razor-thin victory over Princeton was Georgetown’s first after losing its first five games against the Tigers.

Though Cannon’s heroics clinched the win for Georgetown, the Hoyas would not have made it to overtime without the contributions from their talented freshman class, which accounted for six of Georgetown’s nine goals. Attacker Crag Dowd scored a game-high three, midfielder Andrew Brancaccio tallied two goals and an assist and freshman midfielder Scott Kocis added a goal.

“[The freshmen] were great today, but that’s not anything new for us,” Cannon said. “We’ve seen it all year long.”

Brancaccio got Georgetown on the scoreboard first with an unassisted goal in the game’s first minute. Then Princeton’s offense came alive. The Tigers (10-4) scored three unanswered goals and led 3-1 after the first quarter.

But, in the second, the Hoyas looked like a different team. Their passes were sharper and their defense was more physical. Dowd, junior attacker Andrew Baird and senior midfielder Ryan Still all scored to tie the game at 4-4 going into the break.

Urick said that the Hoyas’ success in close games this season gave them confidence going into the second half. Georgetown had won seven games by two goals or fewer before Sunday’s contest.

“At halftime a couple of guys mentioned the fact that we’ve been here plenty of times,” Urick said.

On the other side, Princeton Head Coach Bill Tierney pointed to Dowd’s goal to put Georgetown ahead 8-7 with seven seconds remaining in the third quarter as the game’s key goal. It was certainly unlikely – Dowd stood 15 yards from the goal and appeared to be well-defended. But with the final seconds of the quarter ticking away, Dowd knew that he had to take a shot, and he buried it into goal’s lower left corner.

“That was one that hurt us,” Tierney said.

Princeton had a chance to win the game at the end of regulation. The Tigers gained possession with almost two minutes left and decided to hold for a final shot, but they turned the ball over with just a few seconds remaining.

For players and fans alike, the final minutes of regulation were tense.

“It gets scary when it gets down that late because they’ll usually only wait for really good shots, real quality shots,” senior defender Jerry Lambe said. “The defense really stepped up there at the end.”

After 60 minutes of play, it was hard to say which team had played better. The score was tied 8-8 and no team had a clear advantage anywhere else on the playing field.

Then Cannon put the game away with his daring, almost reckless, move toward the goal.

“A great player like [Cannon] is going to get one,” Tierney said. “It’s tough when it’s in overtime because you can’t get it back.”

The Hoyas are now one win away from their first Final Four since 1999 but that is nothing new – Georgetown has lost in the quarterfinal round in each of the last six seasons.

Saturday’s opening face-off against Johns Hopkins is set for 3 p.m. at Princeton Stadium.