Emerging from Winter Struggles, Georgetown Wins Sixth Straight

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Give Georgetown this much: It keeps things interesting, sometimes in incredibly novel fashion.

Take Saturday’s 13-11 defeat of Providence, a game steeped in a cornucopia of statistical oddities.

The Hoyas doubled up the Friars in shots (56-28), nearly tripled them in faceoff wins (20-7), held a 61-27 edge in ground balls … and escaped with a two-goal victory before 1,447 at Cooper Field.

“If I said these stats to you guys, you would probably say, ‘Yeah, it would be a bigger gap,’” coach Kevin Warne said. “But it wasn’t, so it’s college lacrosse. You have to make sure that whatever possessions you have, you make stops and you have to make sure you do a good job and be productive on offense.”

Tucker Dordevic had four goals and one assist and Jacob Kelly added three goals and three assists for Georgetown (6-3, 2-0), which sits alone atop the Big East after two weeks of league play.

There was some logical way to sort through why things were remotely close. Goalie James Corasaniti made 23 saves for the Friars (5-6, 1-1), while Michael Scharfenberger made two stops in three quarters and Danny Hincks added two more in the final 15 minutes for Georgetown.

Plus, Providence’s offensive personnel were precise, with Michael Chabra and Jack Horrigan both scoring four times and Ryan Bell adding two goals and five assists.

Ultimately, it’s best explained as just another day in a sometimes-baffling season for the Hoyas. They lost their first three to start the year and have since won six in a row. The offense has improved after an early start; the defense has been inconsistent, though it was coming off an impressive effort in a 13-6 defeat of Denver.

Georgetown’s most reliable player was also its most valuable Saturday. James Reilly won 17 of 21 draws to improve 56.8 percent on the season, helping to keep Providence to about 16 minutes of possession time in the first three quarters. He also scored twice and has five goals in the Hoyas’ last three games.

“It’s definitely a new team this year,” Reilly said. “It’s not the team from 2021 or ’22 where we win games by 15 or 16. We like to make everything close, but I think that’s good. In the past, we never played in a close game and the second we’re in a close game, no one knows what to do. We’re getting that experience at the end of games, which I think is really good for us.”

That is, unquestionably, an upbeat way of viewing things. And Georgetown should feel good about emerging from its winter doldrums created by close losses to Johns Hopkins and Penn and a lackluster showing against Notre Dame.

The Hoyas’ attack is functioning much better than it did early on, when it was integrating Dordevic (Syracuse), Kelly and Nicky Solomon (both from North Carolina), Brian Minicus (Colgate) and freshman Patrick Crogan. In two conference games, Georgetown has assisted on 17 of 26 goals.

“Guys are excited,” Dordevic said. “Everything is in front of us. The best part is yet to come. We’re just excited to keep learning and improving.”

It would also be remiss not to point out Providence is clearly heading in the right direction under first-year coach Bobby Benson. Bell has 49 points as a sophomore, within shouting distance of Kyle Ojakian’s single-season school record of 63 set in 2002. Both Chabra and Horrigan have 27 goals. This has happened even as Matt Grillo, the program’s No. 2 career goal scorer, has played in just four games.

It should come as little surprise the Friars know what they’re doing, especially for those who watched Benson-coordinated offenses at Maryland the last two seasons and Johns Hopkins before then. It shines through even with limited possession time, a season-long problem thanks in part to injuries to the faceoff unit.

The lack of wins at the X, coupled with five failed clears in the first half, placed Providence in a 9-4 halftime hole that grew to 11-4 just after the break.

“I thought we did enough in the half-field to give ourselves a chance,” Benson said. “I think the full-field hurt us a little bit. We just have to be a little better there and find ways to survive a little bit more. It’s close, but we have some work to do for the next couple weeks.”

Georgetown had to do a bit more work than it anticipated in the second half Saturday. The Hoyas didn’t play with the same tempo in the third quarter as they did early on, and the Friars turned what could have been a blowout into a 12-8 game entering the final period.

“I feel like if we could have just canned one or two more at certain times, we could have jumped out to that lead, but we just never got there,” Reilly said.

Crogan provided an insurance goal with 11:31 to go, and Georgetown almost needed it. With more possession than it enjoyed all day, Providence closed within two on Bell’s goal with 4:46 to go before mustering only three shots the rest of the way.

And with that, Georgetown closed out a 5-0 homestand. It begins a stretch of three road games in eight days next Saturday at Marquette, with trips to Loyola and St. John’s to follow.

“I think the best lesson is that nothing’s guaranteed,” Warne said. “I think there’s a lot of really good coaches out there. There’s a lot of great players out there. And you [have to be] willing to come do the work during the week and then produce on game day and really do what you’re supposed to do during the week. Because if you don’t, you’ll get burned.”

On Saturday, at least, Georgetown didn’t suffer any consequences for playing with fire.