It certainly wasn’t the best game they have played all season, but despite a back-and-forth game against Fairfield, at the end of the day Georgetown managed to escape with a league road win. In front of a large and boisterous crowd, No. 5 Georgetown (7-2, 3-0 ECAC) withstood a second half rally by Fairfield (3-6, 1-3) and used two late goals to come away with a 10-8 victory.

“Every team we play from here on out is going to give their best effort,” Georgetown Head Coach Dave Urick said. “We were far from playing our best lacrosse, but it was good enough to get the job done. I guess we can’t get too upset about a road win.”

Georgetown wasted no time getting on the board as junior midfielder Todd Cochran took the ball at the top of the crease from freshman midfielder Max Seligmann two minutes into the game. Seligmann beat Fairfield sophomore goalkeeper Joe Marra to give the Hoyas a 1-0 lead.

The Stags responded with two goals to take a 2-1 lead early in the second quarter before Georgetown senior attacker Brendan Cannon showed why he is the most dangerous offensive threat in the ECAC. With 10 minutes left in the first half, Cannon found sophomore attacker Craig Dowd, who tied the score at two goals each.

A minute later Cannon did it all by himself, bouncing the ball past Marra to give the Hoyas a 3-2 advantage.

“Brendan is the type of player who can make a play at any time,” senior attacker Andrew Baird said. “We know if we need a goal – we don’t really lean on him – but he just comes up out of nowhere and makes a play that, we as his teammates know he can do, but other teams aren’t ready for.”

A slashing penalty by sophomore defender Chris Nixon, combined with an illegal check by sophomore defender Barney Ehrmann, gave the Stags a two-man advantage with just under two minutes left in the half. Fairfield capitalized with junior midfielder Chris Ajemian scoring on the extra man opportunity with a minute left in the half, to send the teams into the intermission tied at three goals each.

The teams traded goals to start the half, with Georgetown scoring first, followed by Fairfield; but with the score tied 4-4 Georgetown scored on back-to-back goals to take a two-goal lead. The first goal came on an extra man opportunity following an illegal push by Fairfield junior midfielder Chris Campbell. The Hoyas went back to their bread and butter with Cannon finding Baird near the net, who easily bounced the shot in for a goal. A few minutes later it was Baird on the giving end, this time passing to freshman attacker Ricky Mirabito, for a 6-4 Georgetown lead.

“Andy [Baird] has been a consistent contributor for us all year long,” Urick said. “Not only did he have big goals, but he picked up a lot of big ground balls.”

With the lead narrowed to 7-6, junior midfielder Cullen Molinari found senior midfielder Chase Gahan, who rifled in a shot from the right side to give the Hoyas an 8-6 advantage.

After staying close most of the game, it finally looked like the heavily favored Georgetown had a comfortable lead. But before anyone in the stands had time to contemplate such an idea, the Stags had charged back and tied the score, thanks to a two-goal spurt in the span of 18 seconds.

With the momentum and a large homecoming crowd behind them – Fairfield disbanded its football program in 2002 and now holds its homecoming in the spring – the Stags went on the attack. Over the next few minutes Fairfield put the pressure on the defense but Nixon, along with seniors Jerry Lambe and Craig Stevenson, withstood the rush alongside senior goalkeeper Miles Kass, who made nine saves in the game and converted a huge clear with 4:39 left in the game.

“He has been making saves that most people don’t expect him to make,” Baird said. “He makes them all the time in practice so we are not surprised by it. Our defense has been coming up huge all season.”

Cannon controlled Kass’ clear was able to put the Stags away for good. With the ball on the left side, he raced to the goal and bounced a shot past Marra to give the Hoyas a 9-8 advantage.

“It was a huge goal for us,” Urick said. “He likes to get a run at his man off of the wing, and that’s exactly what he did, and he made a really nice shot.”

A mere 30 seconds later Baird added his second goal of the game to extend the lead to 10-8, and the Hoyas never looked back as they held on for the victory.

Next up for Georgetown is a critical matchup at Loyola on Saturday at 1 p.m. The contest will likely decide the ECAC league title and automatic qualifying berth in the NCAA tournament.

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