April 1, 2006

Box Score

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Back-up goalkeeper Rich D'Andrea stopped 11 Navy shots, while Andrew Baird scored three-consecutive goals to lead No. 5 Georgetown over eighth-ranked Navy, 9-5, Saturday afternoon at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. Now 6-1, Georgetown has won six in a row, while Navy drops to 7-2.

"It's frustrating to lose," said Navy head coach Richie Meade. "It's a frustrating day for everybody, including our players. Had we managed the last five minutes of the first half a little better, we would have had the momentum in our favor. The game is much different when you get the lead. Georgetown was able to get the lead right before the half and the momentum carried over into the second half. We got behind the eightball and it was difficult to recover."

Though Navy outshot the Hoyas, 11-10, in the opening quarter, Georgetown shut out the Mids in the scoring column, as Paolisso scored on an unassisted shot and Trevor Casey took a pass from Jack Samperton and tucked it in past Navy All-American keeper Matt Russell (Madison, Conn.).

The Mids got on the scoreboard less than two minutes into the second quarter when sophomore attack Nick Mirabito (Binghamton, N.Y.) fed Steve Looney (Silver Spring, Md.) from the left side of the goal and Looney scored on a five-yarder.

A plethora of penalties went on the muck up the last 10 minutes of the second stanza. The Hoyas were whistled for five-straight penalties before the Mids were flagged for four violations. Navy took advantage of an extra-man opportunity with 5:42 remaining in the first half when Jon Birsner (Levittown, N.Y.) alertly picked up a loose ball on the crease and shot the ball low as he was falling down to knot the game up at two apiece.

Georgetown, however, took the momentum into the locker room at the half, scoring on a man-up situation of its own, as Casey fed Brendan Cannon from three yards out.

The Hoyas owned the Mids in the third quarter, outscoring Navy, 5-1, including the first-three goals of the period. Georgetown took 14 shots in the third, while holding Navy to just four. Baird scored back-to-back goals for the Hoyas less than 20 seconds apart and in the final minute to give Georgetown an 8-3 edge heading into the final quarter.

"Our defense in the third quarter fell apart," said Russell. "I take pride in Navy being a disciplined defense, but we broke down today. It's frustrating when you know what to expect, what's coming and then we don't execute. It's communication and being ready and I take some responsibility for that. They (Georgetown) seemed to be a step ahead."

Baird scored his third-consecutive goal at the 9:32 mark in the fourth quarter to give the Hoyas their largest lead of the game.

Navy's Ian Dingman (Deferiet, N.Y.) went on to score the final two goals of the game, a man-down goal at 1:37 and an extra-man goal with 50 seconds remaining, but it was too large of a deficit for Navy to overcome.

Georgetown shot the ball 37 times, nearly twice the number of shots the Navy defense is giving up this season (19.6 spg), but just shy of what the Hoyas have been averaging (42.5 spg). Navy's stingy defense also gave up a season-high nine goals, the most the Mids have allowed since last year's 10-8 loss to Virginia in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament.

Navy, meanwhile, outshot the Hoyas for the game, 40-17, posting double-figure shot numbers in every quarter except the third.

"The effort was there, but our execution wasn't," said Birsner, the co-captain of the Midshipmen. "They like to play fast and we stayed with them. We had our chances, but we just had trouble putting it away."

D'Andrea, who had not seen a minute in the cage this season, was forced to replace starting keeper Miles Kass who suffered a knee injury earlier in the week. D'Andrea, however, was the starting keeper for the Hoyas his first three years and at 6-foot-3, the Mids appeared to struggle with the space he took up in the cage.

"We generated a lot of shots and we got the ball inside, but we just couldn't stick it in the net," said Meade. "I thought D'Andrea played pretty well. He's a big guy and several of our shots hit him right in the middle."

Russell made 12 saves in the game for the Midshipmen, including five in the third quarter.

At game's end, Georgetown was presented with the Scott Boyle Memorial Trophy by Scott Boyle's widow, Becky, daughter, Kelly, and son, Scott Jr. Boyle tragically passed away last April while officiating the Georgetown-Navy game in Annapolis. The trophy will be awarded annually to the winner of the Georgetown-Navy game.

Navy returns to action next Friday when it travels to College Park to face off against third-ranked Maryland. CSTV will carry the contest live from Byrd Stadium with face-off slated for 8:00 pm

G-o N-a-v-y