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Senior midfielder Dan D’Agnes looks for a shot last week against Navy.
On Saturday, No. 20 Georgetown (4-5, 0-2 ECAC) will look to do something it hasn’t done so far this season: win two games in a row. The Hoyas, who will host Fairfield on Saturday, got back to the winning ways with a 12-4 win over Mount St. Mary’s (1-6) on Tuesday.
“We’ve got a significant challenge looking at us,” Head Coach Dave Urick said. “I hope we can do it. We just got to string together two wins in a row which we haven’t been able to do.”
The Hoyas wasted no time getting things going on Tuesday as junior midfielder Andrew Brancaccio picked up a loose ball in the first minute of play and beat sophomore goalkeeper T.C. DiBartolo for the first goal of the game. After a faceoff win by senior midfielder Dan Vinson, one of his six wins at the X, freshman midfielder Zach Angel added to the Hoyas’ tally with the first goal of his career to give the Blue and Gray a 2-0 lead.
The Mount would respond later in the first with a goal by freshman attack Mike Adkins to make the score 2-1. A 3-1 run by Georgetown in the second quarter gave the Hoyas a 5-2 advantage going into the half despite several missed opportunities.
The Mount had 16 turnovers in the first half compared to the Hoyas’ nine, but poor shot selection cost the Hoyas, who put 14 shots on goal in the first half.
“There’s two issues for us,” Urick said. “One is shot selection – we’ve gotten a little better. A couple times in the game we took what we don’t think are high percentage shots. In the second half a positive for us was where we put the ball.”
The Hoyas kept the pressure on Mount St. Mary’s defense in the second half, but this time they found the back of the cage a lot easier.
Redshirt sophomore attack Ricky Mirabito found the back of the net off of a pass from junior midfielder Scott Kocis with 9:41 to go in the third quarter to open up the second-half scoring.
oments later, Brancaccio scored again, this time unassisted, for his third goal of the game and 16th of the season.
“Brancaccio located the ball extremely well as did some other guys,” Urick said. “All too often, players like to pick those top corners, but today – particularly in the second half – we did a good job of adjusting to what their goalie gave us.”
The Hoyas kept pouring it on after Brancaccio’s goal, putting eight shots on goal in the period. Two goals and by senior midfielder Dan D’Agnes, his second and third of the game, and one by sophomore midfielder Dan Hostetler capped off the Hoyas 5-0 run to start the second half.
“It’s great to see Dan [D’Agnes] have that kind of game,” Urick said. “He got shoulders square to the goal and he also has the ability to drive to the cage. He shoots on the run real well.”
Holding a 10-3 lead in the waning seconds of the third quarter, junior attack Craig Dowd found the back of the net for his first goal of the game with one second left in the quarter.
The Hoyas cruised in the fourth, giving players outside of the regular rotation a chance to see some action before capping off a 12-4 victory.
Next up for the Hoyas is an ECAC matchup with No. 19 Fairfield (6-2, 3-0 ECAC) who sits at first place in the conference. While the Stags have hardly played the same caliber of a schedule as the Hoyas, they have defeated Hobart, who downed Georgetown 15-8 three weeks ago.
“Fairfield is a good program with a good coach and a lot of good young players,” Urick said. “They’ve won some games and now they’re 20th in the country.”
A win would go a long way toward getting Georgetown back in the ECAC title hunt. The Hoyas currently stand in last place at 0-2 in conference, but with the top of the standings still to come, Urick thinks his squad can turn things around.
“Make them aware it is a possibility,” Urick said. “More significantly, it’s a matter of us trying to improve and work to overcome the things we’re not doing so well. . The term we use is `unchartered waters’ for most of us, but you deal with it. You reap what you sow.”
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