A win over Rutgers on Saturday would lock up the Hoyas’ sixth ECAC crown since Georgetown joined the league in 2000. The Hoyas clinched at least a share of the league title, and an NCAA berth, with their 8-7 victory over Massachusetts on Saturday.
Junior attacker Andrew Baird said that winning the ECAC outright would be a major accomplishment for the team.
“Our initial goal at the beginning of the season is to win the league championship,” Baird said. “We know that if we win our league, we get the automatic qualifier to get in to the [NCAA] tournament. We also know that if we win our league and go undefeated, which we have a chance to do this year, it just looks a lot better come tournament time for our seeding to give us a better shot to get to our goal of the national championship.”
Rutgers still has a shot at tying No. 4 Georgetown (9-2, 5-0 ECAC) for first place in the final ECAC standings. Despite their mediocre record, the Scarlet Knights (5-5, 3-2) have proven themselves capable of pulling off upsets. Three weeks ago, they crushed No. 13 Loyola 17-7.
“They’re a very good team,” Baird said. “They beat Loyola by 10 goals and we beat Loyola by two. They can beat anybody if they play well.”
But the Scarlet Knights have been inconsistent. A week after dominating Loyola, Rutgers fell hard to No. 12 Syracuse, 22-9. They’ve also lost to three teams that Georgetown has defeated: No. 18 Delaware, Fairfield and St. John’s. The Scarlet Knights scored only four goals against St. John’s, a team that Georgetown beat 12-6.
Georgetown Head Coach Dave Urick said that the Hoyas cannot afford to overlook the Scarlet Knights.
“Up until now our guys have done a pretty good job of focusing on the next game and the next game only, and I think that’s going to be awfully important now,” he said.
Rutgers, much like Georgetown, features a balanced scoring attack. Six of their players have scored 10 goals or more this season. Senior attacker Colin Checcio leads the team with 25 goals.
“Their top six offensive players are as good as anybody we’ve seen,” Urick said. “They’re very capable guys. I’ve been very impressed with how hard they take it to the goal.”
Urick also identified Rutgers freshman attacker Justin Pennington as a player who could hurt the Hoyas. Pennington, Rutgers’ second-leading scorer with 24 points on the season, scored in double overtime to give the Scarlet Knights an 8-7 win over Penn State last Sunday.
Urick said that the Scarlet Knights will be tough to beat because they need a win on Saturday to keep their NCAA tournament hopes alive.
“It seems like we catch a lot of these teams, starting with Fairfield and then Loyola and then UMass, when they’re kind of in a situation where they need a win real bad to stay in the hunt for the postseason,” Urick said. “Four weeks in a row now we’ve faced a team like that, so you know you’re going to get a strong effort from those guys.”
Junior attacker Brendan Cannon could be the difference-maker for the Hoyas. Cannon, who has scored 15 goals and dished out a team-high 20 assists on the season, scored two goals and added two assists in Georgetown’s win over Massachusetts on Saturday.
“He’s such a good player, so teams really have to focus on him to try to stop him,” Baird said about Cannon. “It benefits all of us in terms of getting open and getting better looks because teams have to double him and really account for him.”
Last season, Georgetown defeated Rutgers 9-8 at Yurcak Field in Piscataway, N.J.
Saturday’s opening face-off is slated for 1 p.m. at the ulti-Sport Field.
At halftime, Georgetown will honor the 1997 Georgetown men’s lacrosse team, the first team in program history to advance to the NCAA tournament.
