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.

- 30 -