The Golden Eagles are human after all.
After falling behind 8-2 at the half to Georgetown No. 11/9 Marquette mounted yet another comeback. This time around they came just short, losing for the first time this season 10-9.
Two unsportsmanlike penalties with four minutes left gave the Hoyas a two-man advantage, leading to the go-ahead goal. Marquette had an opportunity to tie things back up, but couldn’t find the back of the net in the waning seconds.
Graduate student attackmen Jordan Greenfield led the team with three goals and an assist and Redshirt junior midfielder Kyle Whitlow had three goals. Junior attackman Conor Gately’s four points (2+2) pushed him passed Tyler Melnyk for the program’s career leader in points.
In addition to being the team’s first loss of the season, it also moves the Golden Eagles to 0-1 in the Big East conference with tough games coming up against Villanova and Denver. This is the first time the Hoyas have defeated Marquette in-conference play, since Marquette played as an independent in their first season.
The victory for Georgetown is its second this week against a Top 20 opponent. The Hoyas defeated No. 14/14 Loyola (MD) on Wednesday night. Already receiving votes in both rankings this week, Georgetown will move into the Top 20 next week.
Marquette looked out of sorts at the beginning of the game, falling behind 2-0 early. The issues started at the faceoff X, where the Golden Eagles lost the first seven. The Golden Eagles eventually found an answer to their issues in junior Gryphin Kelly, who helped the Golden Eagles win every faceoff in the second quarter. He won nine of his 14 draws on the day.
Despite the increased possession, the Golden Eagles still failed to get into prime scoring locations, taking multiple shots from poor angles. Great play by Georgetown freshman goaltender Nick Marracco helped the Hoyas shut out Marquette in the second quarter, and four different Georgetown players scored to extend the lead to six at the half.
Marquette began their signature comeback in the third, led by Greenfield and Gately. After Stephen Quinzi answered the Golden Eagles two goals in the first half of the third, the Golden Eagles went on a five goal run. Junior midfielder Blaine Fleming, who scored the winning goal in the Hofstra game, tied the game up at nine with six minutes left. It was the first time the Golden Eagles were not trailing in the game.
“I knew if we could play better between the lines and start to win some faceoffs like we were in the second quarter we could sneak back in,” Marquette head coach Joe Amplo said.
With just under five minutes left in the game, the Golden Eagles were handed two unsportsmanlike penalties, to Greenfield and Amplo. Following the game, Amplo said his penalty was given after he believed the referees did not give him a time-out call.
Those penalties would come back to bite the Golden Eagles. Craig Berge scored with seven seconds left in the two-man up opportunity, which would be the game-winning goal.
“I’m sorry for them that my actions and the decisions that the referees make didn’t give them an opportunity to win the game,” Amplo said. “That didn’t cost us the game it cost us an opportunity to compete to win the game.”
Fleming had one final midrange opportunity with 20 seconds left, but his low shot found the right post and ricocheted all the way out to center field.
“We got what we were looking for, the ball just didn’t drop for us this time,” Amplo said.
The Golden Eagles face another tough challenge next week against No. 20/17 Villanova (5-2).
