Hoyas Pull Huge Choke, Tourney Seed Will Plummet

[laxer341]

13-12 in OT.

D'Andrea was awful. We need to cross our fingers for tonight.

[laxer341]

Did some research on our goaltending problems take a look:

Starting goalies for

Hopkins-65%
Duke-63%
UVA-60%
UMD- 61%

D'Andrea (us)- 51%

These numbers correlate with the rankings. Is Kass any good? We need some help here.

[WilsonBlvdHoya]

VERY disappointing weekend for GU lacrosse. Needless to say, both teams are in the tourney but both may have blown 1st round home seedings (regardless of Post categorization of state of Kehoe Field).

Here's hoping both squads can take it to the next level in their respective tourneys......

[TBird41]

I don't really know enough about Lax to comment on the goalie play, but the Hoyas had huge problems with face offs. There was a stretch where PSU scored, won the faceoff, scored immediately, and won the faceoff and scored immediately again.

I think PSU scored 5 goals off of faceoffs, where they won the faceoff, pushed it and scored.

Though that goal to send it to OT was amazing.

[FLHoya]

Here's your box score:

guhoyas.collegesports.com/sports/m-lacros/stats/2004-2005/05x08x05.html

This was basically a carbon copy of the UMass game. GU goes down 3-4 goals early, gets a lead at the start of the fourth quarter but can't hold it and the opponent counterpunches. Only difference I guess is that the shot at the end of regulation went in this time.

Of course, had we won, would have been the best lax game I've been to at GU. Now it's just a really exciting game that we lost--cause that NEVER happens to Georgetown sports teams

Tons of fast breaking, lots of great loose ball battles, defense and goaltending...not so much. Both teams scored at least 3 of what I'd call soft goals.

It honestly balanced itself out though. For every time D'Andrea let in one of the running righty shots from an angle (like the goal in OT), Brendan Cannon pulled one of those NHLPA '93 Hockey-style wraparound goals. Whoever was covering Brendan for PSU's gonna end up in some first round opponent's game tape for the NCAA Tournament. All four of his goals were unassisted--he just put a move on a guy behind the net and walked right in. He's not bad for a freshman, huh? To have even gotten the pass off to Miaritis for the goal with 0.8 left was impressive, b/c with 4.6 left and behind your net, there's only one thing you're gonna do basically. Funny too, GTown had tried to run that type of play a bunch of times in the game and missed the pass on pretty much every one of them, until the one that mattered.

The intensity of the game was impressive, clearly Penn State was playing like a team in a virtual play-in game. Not that Georgetown was playing uninspired, but too many guys (Corno, D'Andrea, the entire defense besides Brodie) seemed to be having off days. You just knew whoever had the ball first in OT was gonna win it right there, and PSU was getting the better of the face offs (I think the 50% stat in the boxscore's a little iffy) and they won the OT one clean.

So I guess this means the North Kehoe for Tournament issue's dead, at least for the men. Maybe they'll end up with a 10 seed (I figured 7 before today's game, so maybe they'll just switch them from hi to low seed in that game, who knows?) and stay the heck away from Baltimore two weekends from now.

[nychoya3]

FYI, I heard from a friend that D'Andrea will be back next year, because he was a redshirt freshman. He has a ton of big game experience, but he does seem prone to bad days, like he had against PSU and UMass. My uninformed impression is that a lot of a goalies success depends on his close defense, and that after that luck plays a really big role. But I hear you anyway. The stats say we should have beaten PSU handily, but their goalie stopped shots and our didn't.

We recruited the top goalie in the nation last year (Kass, I think), but he hasn't really played this season. I expect it to be an open competition next year.

On the subject of recruiting, I saw this link for the incoming class of recruits. Last years was reputedly very good - this one may be better. We get 4 kids from Landon, which is one of the top lacrosse programs in the nation. Some other apparently well regarded guys as well. Brodie is irreplacable, but we've got a lot of talent returning, so we should be very good next year. I've noticed number 4 (scott kahoe) making a lot of plays this year. He was one of the top midfield recruits last year, and figures to play a big role next year. And of course, Brendan Cannon has been terrific in the second half of the year.

www.laxpower.com/laxnews/news.php?story=165

[JimmyHoya]

Stoddie Nibley is great. He had an unbelieveably run on this one clear during the Prep game last month. He also scored the game winner in last year's 4OT IAC Championship versus Prep. He's a big time player.

The others are...meh. They're Landon seniors...they're meant to be good by default. *shrugs*

I assume Taylor is great cos he comes from Washington State and that's a looooonnng trip for a lax coach to make. Great analysis, huh? ;D

[lichoya68]

hwoa i think in the mass and penn state game one or two starter defensemen were hurt.. that dont help the goalie... and then ...voila.. they come back and destroy army in the best offense and defenseive game of the year.. also i think corno was hurt... especially vs. the first maryland game... and voila vs army... i think he was like 15 of sixteen faceoffs so quess what.. we are peaking at the right time ..and have the right people doing ok.. and healthy.. so we just might sneak up and win the whole darn thing!!! go hoyas... beat the twerps ;D