Hoya File Photo/The Hoya Sophomore Mike Chiara and the Hoyas are ranked No. 4 in the nation. As the 2001 season opened three weeks ago, the Georgetown men’s lacrosse team worried about its offensive inexperience. But, with a 4-0 record and coming off a 20-8 rout of Butler, many of those worries have now been quelled.
The Hoyas overpowered the Bulldogs on Wednesday, taking 64 shots compared to Butler’s 24. They also dominated face-offs, winning 25 of 32. Senior midfielders Scott Doyle and Tom Tamberrino each had a hat trick for Georgetown.
The Hoyas started off the game with an offensive flurry, scoring four unanswered goals, one from Doyle, two from Tamberrino and one from freshman attackman Neal Goldman. Butler then managed to get two in the net, but the Hoyas added three more to make the score 7-2 at the end of the first period.
The second period began with Doyle and senior midfielder Keith Baker each scoring for the Hoyas. The two teams then traded goals, with the Hoyas getting two more from Doyle and sophomore midfielder P.J. Paolisso. The score at halftime was 11-4.
The Hoyas continued to dominate in the second half, scoring nine more goals to the Bulldogs’ four. Sophomore attackman Mike Hammer, who also had three assists on the day, scored his second goal of the game in the third quarter. By the end of the third period the Hoyas were up 14-5. The second half lead allowed the Hoyas to play many of their newcomers while keeping the Bulldogs well at bay. Freshman midfielder Walid Hajj and freshman attackmen Ken Osier and Kevin Shooshan each scored their first goals as a Hoya.
Head Coach Dave Urick was pleased with the Hoyas’ improvement over their last two games.
“It’s a maturation process. We’re playing better at [the attack] end of the field. Mike Hammer is playing more consistently for us, and that’s important. Jamie Sharpe is playing well. Henehan is back,” Urick said. “Overall, we did a great job facing off against them, and that allowed us to possess the ball quite a bit, and that’s important. They played a little bit of zone against us, and I thought we reacted pretty well to that, so that’s a good sign.”
The Hoyas have been plagued by injuries in 2001 this season, but have recovered well with senior attackman Mike Henehan back in the lineup for the first time Wednesday.
“We’re as healthy as we’ve been all year,” Urick said.
The game against Butler was the Hoyas’ second of three games in eight days, with the third coming Saturday against conference opponent No. 10 University of Maryland Baltimore County. Because of the importance of the upcoming UMBC matchup, Georgetown took the opportunity Wednesday to rest several players, including usual junior starting goalie Scott Schroeder. Urick decided to start senior Dan Mooney in the cage. Mooney had six saves while allowing seven goals.
“Danny Mooney is a very good goalie and has been in a support role for us for four years, and it seemed like the right thing to do, to give him an opportunity to play and to play from the very beginning. And he responded very well, and I think the kids rallied around that a little bit,” Urick said.
While the rest of the student body was on spring break, the Hoyas were busy garnering wins over No. 24 Army, 14-9 and Penn State, 12-5.
The Hoyas scored six goals in the third quarter after being down 6-5 at halftime to prevail over the Black Knights of Army.
“We didn’t play particularly well in the first half, but the kids responded great in the second half, and we came out and had a big third quarter, and we were able to ride that out,” Urick said.
“After our first two games against Ohio State and Army, we weren’t feeling real good about the way we were playing, but then against Penn State we played much, much better and showed signs of a team that maybe can be around at the end of the season,” Urick said. “We started to get a little bit better in every aspect of the game. Offensively we started to do some better things. We simplified what we were doing, and that really helped us out.”
