Virginia Gets Road Win at Georgetown, 8-7

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April 23, 2016

WASHINGTON – The Virginia Cavaliers (7-7) earned a road win over the Georgetown Hoyas (2-11) on Saturday night, 8-7, at Cooper Field.

“It feels good to get back on the winning ledger,” said Virginia men’s lacrosse head coach Dom Starsia. “Coming up and getting a win on the road, we will take it going into the last week of the regular season with a game against Brown. I thought we had moments tonight where we could have put the game away, but great credit to Georgetown. They fought back like we expected them to. We made too many mistakes overall, whether it was clearing the ball or things like that kept us from scoring some more goals and putting some distance between us and them earlier in the game. It was a good W and we will take it.”

There wasn’t much action in the first quarter until Zed Williams scored unassisted with 2:17 left in the opening frame. Georgetown equaled the score on a Joe Bucci goal with 22 seconds left in the period, but not to be outdone Michael Howard scored his first collegiate goal on the ensuing faceoff. The slow developing play came with four seconds left in the first quarter.

Bucci found nylon again for Georgetown with 11:21 left in the second half, tying the score at 2-2. UVA closed the first half with a 3-0 run, taking a 5-2 lead into the intermission. Ryan Lukacovic found James Pannell on the crease for a goal at 10:39 in the second. Matt Emery scored on an AJ Fish helper at 4:32 to continue the run. After a Georgetown failed clear, Lukacovic found Pannell again with one second left in the half to cap the run. The assist by Lukacovic was the 100th career point of the junior’s UVA career.

Georgetown started the second half on a 3-0 run to the tie the score at 5-5, including shutting out UVA entirely in the third quarter. A pair of Bucci goals bookended a Greg Galligan goal that came with 11:29 left in the third period. Bucci capped the run with 12:44 left in the game.

Pannell gave UVA the lead back at 11:26, and then Williams scored a man-up goal at 9:48, giving UVA a 7-5 advantage. Bucci scored his fifth goal of the game with 8:05 left to bring the Hoyas within one goal, 7-6. Williams scored again with the 30-second shot clock on with 4:06 left in the game to take an 8-6 lead.

Craig Berge scored with five seconds left for Georgetown, but it wasn’t enough as UVA held on for the victory.

UVA won the battle of shots (36-35) and faceoffs (9-8), while Georgetown had more ground balls (32-24) and saves (15-12). UVA had more turnovers (14-12).

Pannell and Williams each led UVA with three goals apiece.

Virginia returns to action next Saturday in the ACC – Brown Showcase in Kennesaw, Ga. UVA and No. 3 Brown faceoff at 7 p.m.