Georgetown at Navy: Halftime thoughts
No. 20 Navy trails No. 13 Georgetown, 6-4, at halftime here at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, and the Midshipmen have got to be kicking themselves over finding themselves in this situation.
After the teams exchanged goals to open the game, Navy allowed the Hoyas to gain a two-goal lead via some sloppy play. While attempting to clear the ball, sophomore defenseman Matt Vernam got the ball knocked out of his stick by Craig Dowd, and the Georgetown senior attackman raced in alone on a breakaway to score with 4:22 left in the first quarter.
Nine seconds later, freshman midfielder Patrick Murray won his first career face-off and scored his first career goal.
The Hoyas began the second quarter with five turnovers on five possessions, and the Midshipmen took advantage, getting a pair of man-up goals from junior attackman Andy Warner to tie the score with 5:06 left.
But Georgetown ended the period with two straight scores to regain the two-goal cushion. By the way, the Hoyas have taken the lead in groundballs (20-9) and shots (17-13). So the Midshipmen have had their chances to seize control, but have squandered those opportunities.
Other notes:
*Sophomore goalkeeper R.J. Wickham appeared to score the first goal of his career when he went coast-to-coast and fired the ball past Georgetown senior Jack Davis with 9:04 left in the second quarter. But the goal was waived off after the play because officials had determined that Navy was offsides. Several of us in the press box atop the stadium didn’t see the offsides penalty, but who are we to question the officials?
*The Hoyas got a huge lift defensively with the earlier-than-anticipated return of senior defenseman Eric Bicknese. Bicknese had been nursing a shoulder injury that forced him to sit out the team’s last three games. But he played and has allowed Midshipmen senior attackman Brendan Connors to score just once. The same could not be said for redshirt junior attackman Rickey Mirabito, who suffered a jaw injury in the Georgetown’s 15-10 loss to No. 6 Duke last Saturday and will miss this game.
