The Georgetown University men’s lacrosse team (8-4, 3-1 Big East) defeated the St. John’s Red Storm (4-10, 0-4 Big East) 21-8 on the road Saturday, April 19 bouncing back from last week’s 3-7 loss to Denver and punching their ticket to the Big East tournament.
Georgetown showed precision and pace from the opening faceoff, smothering St. John’s on both ends of the field with a relentless attacking barrage. The Hoyas struck first when first-year attacker Jack Ransom fired from distance with the Red Storm’s goalkeeper, Patrick Scarborough, out of position for the opening goal. Georgetown first-year faceoff specialist Ross Prince won the next faceoff, and Ransom took to goal with a fadeaway at the high crease and a low burying shot to make the score 2-0 in the first five minutes.
Georgetown’s offense remained unrelenting. A minute later, junior attacker Joe Cesare collected graduate attacker Aidan Carroll’s cross-crease pass and whistled a shot right past the goalie to make it 3-0. Two minutes of offensive control later, junior midfielder Patrick Crogan joined the scoring spree with a spin move around a Red Storm defender to sneak behind the crease and finish to make the lead 4-0, triggering a St. John’s timeout with 7:10 left in the quarter.
The timeout proved ineffective as Ransom completed his hat trick with 6:12 left in the first quarter and added another just 20 seconds later to give the Hoyas a dominating 6-0 lead.
Carroll completed the quarter 9-0 with a rocket from distance, assisted by junior midfielder Lucas Dudemaine. The Hoyas shot 9 and 25 in the first quarter, tripling their goal output from last week’s loss to Denver in just the first 15 minutes of gametime.
St. John’s finally put up their first goal with 9:58 left in the second quarter. A defensive miscommunication caught the Hoyas off guard with a Red Storm attacker, Adrian Nowak, free in front of the crease, bringing the score to 11-1.
Georgetown replied late in the quarter with a Carroll hat trick and St. John’s concluded the half with a goal from deep with just 42 seconds remaining to make the score 12-2.
The Red Storm opened the second half looking to chip away at their deficit, scoring twice in the first two minutes, but the Hoyas found their footing and reclaimed control. Carroll netted his fourth with a highlight-reel skip pass from Cesare. Graduate attacker Fulton Bayman followed with a fadeaway top bar shot, making it look routine.
Ransom tallied his sixth goal and career-high with a jump shot and an assist from Crogan to make the score 17-5 with six minutes remaining in the third quarter.
St. John’s found the net early in the fourth, but the Hoyas answered with a momentous first: first-year attacker Zach Chari’s first collegiate goal from wide to create a 13-goal lead. After the Red Storm’s midfielder Sean Rice put up another goal, sophomore attacker Shuey Kelly put up 2 back-to-back goals to put the game away with about five minutes left in the game, the first goals of his collegiate career.
St. John’s midfielder Drew Wasserman snuck scored a consolation goal with 32 seconds remaining, ending the game at 21-8.
Ransom led the Hoyas with a career-high of 6 goals and an assist, while Carroll tied his career-high of 5 goals and an assist. Ransom earned Big East freshman of the week for his performance, and Carroll was recognized on the Big East weekly honor roll.
Ransom credited his teammates and said they put him in position to excel.
“We played together and engaged for sure and flew around the field, which I feel is something we haven’t been doing all season,” Ransom told The Hoya. “My success only came because of my teammates. They fed me inside, spaced the field and made the smart play almost every time they touched it.”
“I think we are looking good now and are going to turn some heads in these next upcoming games,” Ransom added.
After the game, Carroll moved to 22nd place on Georgetown’s all-time scoring chart with 127 points. Prince won 13 of 17 faceoffs and tied his career-high with 7 ground balls while sophomore goaltender Anderson Moore collected 9 saves, earning them both a spot on the Big East weekly honor roll.
First-year defender Robert Plath tied the Georgetown program record for most caused turnovers in a season by a first-year with 24, while sophomore defender Ty Banks tied the 8th place record holder in Georgetown history for turnovers caused with 42.
With the victory, the Hoyas moved to 3-1 in the Big East and secured a spot in the Big East tournament. Georgetown returns to the Hilltop next week to host the Villanova Wildcats (7-5, 4-0 Big East) for their final regular season game on Friday, April 25 at 7 p.m.
