Georgetown Hosts No. 16 Navy on Saturday for Fourth Annual Boyle Cup

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Georgetown University men’s lacrosse team will play its second home game of the week on Saturday, March 28, hosting local rival Navy.  Face-off at the Multi-Sport Field is slated for 1 p.m.

The game will be shown live on the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN), with Bob Socci handling the play-by-play and Matt Poskay serving as the color analyst.  It can also be viewed live on the Georgetown Athletics website – www.guhoyas.com – with Chuck Timanus providing the call on HoyaVision.

Georgetown enters the game with a 3-4 overall record, while Navy is 6-3 overall and ranked No. 16 in the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association poll and in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse Top 20.

Georgetown won its first home game of the season on Wednesday, holding off No. 11 Harvard in overtime, 9-8, with junior Rickey Mirabito (Binghamton, N.Y./Chenango Forks) scoring the winning goal off an assist from junior Craig Dowd (East Northport, N.Y./Northport) with 1:19 left.

The Hoyas have been led on the offensive side by a quartet of juniors.  Mirabito is one of four players with at least 10 points, scoring a team-leading 20 points, including a team-best 15 goals.  Mirabito is third in the ECAC League in goals per game (2.14) and ranks fifth in the league in points per game (2.71).  Dowd is second on the team with 17 points, dishing out a team-high 11 assists.  He is third in the ECAC in assists per game (1.57) and tied for seventh in the league in scoring (2.43).

Juniors Andrew Brancaccio (Bethesda, Md./Georgetown Prep) and Scott Kocis (Huntington, N.Y./ Huntington) are tied for third on the team in scoring with 14 points apiece.  Brancaccio has 11 goals and three assists for 14 points, while Kocis has scored 10 goals and four assists.

Georgetown’s defense has allowed more than 10 goals only once this season.  The unit, led by junior goalie Jack Davis (Glen Ridge, N.J./Glen Ridge), is allowing only 9.37 goals per game.  Davis, in his first year as a starter, has made 66 saves and carries a 9.42 GAA.

Junior Barney Ehrmann (Baltimore, Md./Gilman) leads the team with 31 ground balls, while junior Chris Nixon (Duxbury, Mass./Duxbury) has added 24, senior Chris Taylor (Mercer Island, Wash./Mercer Island) has 18 and senior Stevie Bauer (Red Bank, N.J./Peddie School) has 14 ground balls.

Senior Dan Vinson (Pleasant Hill, Calif./DeLaSalle) has been strong at the face-off X for the Hoyas, winning 39-of-72 attempts (54.8%).  Classmate Mike Shotwell (Fairfax, Va./St. Stephens-St. Agnes), who won seven attempts during the win over Harvard, has won 50.7 percent of his attempts (37-of-73).

The Midshipmen opened the season with wins against VMI and Ohio State before losing consecutive games to North Carolina and Bucknell.  Navy had won four-straight before losing to Colgate at home last week.  Junior attack Tim Paul leads the team in scoring with 24 points, scoring a team-high 15 goals and adding nine assists.  Junior Brendan Connors has 11 goals and six assists for 17 points, while sophomore Andy Warner is third on the team with nine goals and seven assists for 16 points.

The game will mark the Fourth Annual Boyle Cup. The Boyle Cup is named in honor of longtime official Scott Boyle, who tragically collapsed and passed away while officiating the Navy-Georgetown game at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium on April 2, 2005.

This will be the 20th meeting all-time between Georgetown and Navy. The Hoyas lead the head-to-head series, 13-6, and have won the last five meetings.  In last year’s game, Navy scored three times in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 10-all, but Mirabito, who led GU with three goals in the game, scored with 1:42 left in overtime to give the Hoyas a thrilling 11-10 win.

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Collegiate Men’s Lacrosse
Colgate def. #15 Navy, 10-9

For Immediate Release
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Men’s Lacrosse Contact:  Stacie Michaud (410) 293-8773
For more information on Navy Athletics, log onto www.NavySports.com

Mids Drop One-Goal Decision to Colgate
ANNAPOLIS, Md. —  Colgate’s starting attack combined to score eight goals including all four in the second half to lead the Raiders (4-3, 2-0 PL) to a 10-9 victory over the 15th-ranked Navy men’s lacrosse team (6-3, 3-2 PL) Saturday afternoon at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.  The loss was the first suffered at home by the Mids against a Patriot League foe since joining the conference in 2004, as Navy came into the contest boasting a 20-0 record.

Navy has now lost all three games this season by one goal – 9-8 at North Carolina, 8-7 at Bucknell and 10-9 vs. Colgate.  Over the last two seasons, Navy has had nine games decided by one goal, winning four.

While Navy held the Raiders under their scoring average (12.67), head coach Richie Meade felt his squad would have to hold Colgate to six or seven goals in order to pull out the win.  After giving up six first-half goals, the Mids chewed up a great deal of the clock in the third quarter, giving the Raiders few opportunities on their offensive side of the field.

But a transition goal with 2:10 left in the third stanza by senior attackman Kevin Colleluori helped spark a four-goal run by the Raiders.  Suddenly, the Mids found themselves down by two goals instead of leading by a pair as they were midway through the third.

Navy cut the lead to one on a Michael Beggins (Smithtown, N.Y.) runner with 5:12 remaining in the final quarter, but the Mids would get no closer as Colgate scored its second consecutive win over Navy and remained unbeaten in the Patriot League.

“Their attack just shredded us today,” said Meade, whose defense came into the contest ranked fifth nationally giving up just 6.50 goals per game.  “There were times that we played alright, but we slid to the wrong guy at the wrong time, we got caught in several unsettled situations and left guys open.  It’s tough for a goalkeeper to save balls when the shot is right on top of him.  At the end of the day, our defense was giving them easy goals and our offense didn’t convert shots into goals.”

Much to the dismay of Meade, if one were to look at the box score you’d be hard pressed to believe Colgate came out the victor.  Navy outshot Colgate, 44-28, produced a 30-19 advantage in ground balls, won 15 of the 23 faceoffs, held the Raiders without a goal on four extra-man opportunities and turned in six fewer turnovers.

What gives?  An experienced offensive unit that is one of the best in the country.

Two-time Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year Brandon Corp scored three goals and added two assists for Jim Nagle’s Raiders, while Colleluori also punched in three goals and the third amigo on the starting attack line Zack Craumer posted a pair of goals.

“I thought Colgate played pretty well,” said Meade.  “They played with a lot of intensity and their seniors stepped to the plate and played very well.  Corp is going to get his goals, but I?was hoping we’d be able to get a handle on Colleluori.”

After Navy had taken a 2-1 lead nearly seven minutes into the game, the Raiders strung together three consecutive goals, including a Craumer-to-Colleluori score off a Navy turnover at the 7:14 mark that helped start the run.

The Mids answered when senior Shane Durkin (Germantown, Md.) found junior attackman Tim Paul (Parkton, Md.) behind the cage and Paul curled around the right side of the goal and found an open space to thread the shot.  The Paul goal, scored at 1:14 in the opening quarter, was the spark Navy needed as the Mids scored six of the next eight goals.  Paul also gave the Mids some momentum going into the half, as his top-shelf runner with 14 seconds remaining helped even the game at six apiece.

Navy then opened the second half by scoring back-to-back goals, first an unassisted marker by junior middie Joe Lennon (Westminster, Md.), followed by a shot from 10 yards out by classmate Patrick Moran (Annapolis, Md.) who was fed by Paul.  Navy had possession of the ball and hoped to push its lead to 9-6, but a turnver by the Mids turned the momentum in Colgate’s favor.

Lennon, Moran and Paul paced Navy with two goals, while Moran also added a pair of assists in the losing effort.  Meanwhile, Navy continues to improve at the faceoff “x” where it won 15 of the 23 draws, including a 15-for-22 performance by junior Frankie Coppola (Bethesda, Md.).

“This is definitely a disappointment,” said Meade, whose hopes of reeling in the top seed in the Patriot League Tournament are slipping away.  “I?don’t care about the Patriot League seeding right now …. I can’t worry about that.  All I care about is getting out to practice on Monday and correcting the mistakes we are making.  All I care about is winning the next game.”

The competition doesn’t get any easier for the Mids as they look ahead to next week’s opponent.  Navy will travel to Washington, DC to battle 19th-ranked Georgetown, who, like the Mids, is in desperate need of a win.  The Hoyas dropped to 2-4 on the year after losing a 9-5 decision to Duke in Durham on Saturday.  The Mids and Hoyas will meet up next Saturday in a game slated for a 1:00 pm start that will be broadcast live by MASN.  Navy fans can also tune in to 1430 WNAV and the WFED family of networks (1050 AM, 820 AM 1050 AM) to hear the Voice of Navy Lacrosse Pete Medhurst call the action.

### Go Navy ###