VILLANOVA, Pa. – Georgetown’s defense wasn’t enough to top Denver in the regular season, but it won them the Big East Championship final in a rematch of the top two seeds in the conference.
The Hoyas held Denver in check during a regular-season 6-5 loss Mar. 31, but this time their defense was even stingier for an 8-3 upset win Saturday at tournament host Villanova. Big East Goalkeeper of the Year Nick Marrocco led the way with 14 saves to earn tournament Most Outstanding Player honors.
Lucas Wittenberg had three goals and two assists, Jake Carraway had a hat trick as well and head coach Kevin Warne’s game plan helped hold Denver to its lowest output since a 12-3 loss to Virginia on Apr. 28, 2003.
“With Coach Warne, we all had this same vision – Big East champs,” Marrocco said. “Now finally it did happen, but all that work didn’t go unnoticed and it’s not just everyone playing on the field, it’s the whole team. It’s practice and everything we do matters. It’s awesome we could finally culminate our careers with a Big East championship and keep going into the tournament.”
The win for second-seeded Georgetown (12-4) earned them their first Big East Championship title and the Big East’s automatic berth to the NCAA tournament, likely the only path they had to reach the NCAAs. Top-seeded Denver (12-3), which had been 6-0 against Georgetown all-time, expects to receive an at-large bid on Sunday.
“I thought Georgetown outplayed us,” said Denver head coach Bill Tierney. “They were on it better than we were. They stopped us offensively. I thought our defense, we played pretty well. If you give up eight goals, you should win at this level.”
Colin Rutan came off the bench to score all three of Denver’s goals. Trevor Baptiste, who set the all-time faceoff record in Denver’s Big East semifinal win over Marquette on Thursday, won 11 of 15 faceoffs.
Georgetown’s win was all the sweeter for a group of 13 seniors that had seen hard times after making the Big East championship game as freshmen. They went 2-12 in 2016 and 4-10 in 2017 and won just one conference game in each of those years.
“It’s definitely been a tough road, a long road coming from the past two seasons,” Marrocco said. “The outcome was not as we hoped. We had some talent but couldn’t put the pieces together. All 13 of us stuck together since freshman year and I think that’s pretty incredible. I think that’s carried us to this season.”
Georgetown had to overcome a lot just in this year to return to significance. The Hoyas lost their leading scorer this year when Daniel Bucaro was hurt at the end of March. Georgetown already had to rebuild its defense after losing four starters from a year ago, and turned over much of its coaching staff with three new assistants.
“The odds were stacked against us,” Warne said.
But Warne had promised a Big East title within six years, and in his sixth year he delivered it.
“We might not be the most talented team, and that’s OK, but we’re going to work our tails off,” Warne said. “Every one has a certain characteristic that drew us together and you put it all together and you can get results.”
PHOTO BY KEVIN P. TUCKER
Georgetown head coach Kevin Warne promised a Big East championship within six years and the Hoyas delivered in year six despite winning just a combined two conference games in 2016 and 2017.
Georgetown took a 1-0 lead as Carraway picked up an overthrow from Denver’s Austin French that went all the way out to midfield, sprinted down and fired one in the left side of the cage.
Carraway made it 2-0 with 19 seconds left in the first quarter when he took a pass from Craig Berge on the outside and ripped a shot while running right into the upper left corner.
Despite outshooting Georgetown, 8-6, Denver was shut out in the first quarter, the first time it has been scoreless in a quarter since the Hoyas held them scoreless in the second quarter of their regular-season game.
“We knew that Trevor Baptiste is one of the best faceoff guys in the country and we’re going to have limited possessions,” Carraway said. “We game-planned for that, work the ball around, keep possession, tire the defense out and make their offense frustrated so when they got it they were forcing it. That was the game plan and we executed and it worked out.”
Marrocco started the second quarter by kicking away Colton Jackson’s low shot, and at the other end Wittenberg spun and fired it by Denver goalie Josh Matte for a 3-0 Georgetown lead barely two minutes into the second quarter.
Georgetown opened a 4-0 lead when Carraway found the back of the net for his hat trick off a feed from Wittenberg. That goal prompted Denver to replace Matte, who did not have a save, with junior Alex Ready. Ready immediate saved the first two shots he saw.
Rutan finally snapped Denver’s scoreless streak when he brought the ball out from behind on the left side and was able to turn and get it by Marrocco with 2:08 left in the first half.
Wittenberg broke straight in from the top, veered to his right and ripped one high in the right corner for a 5-1 Georgetown lead going into halftime. Marrocco looked every bit the part of the Goalkeeper of the Year with nine saves in the first half, including eight in the second quarter.
“We just stuck to our game plan,” Marrocco said. “It’s cool when you play with a defense that you trust. That’s what it’s been all year long, and I give them the most credit in the world. We’re going to keep that going into the tournament and make some things happen.”
PHOTO BY KEVIN P. TUCKER
Georgetown's Ryan Hursey bottles up Denver's Ethan Walker during the Hoyas 8-3 win in the Big East championship game. Walker was held scoreless on 12 shots in the game as the Pioneers had their lowest scoring output since 2003.
Denver outshot Georgetown, 23-13, in the first half but only 10 of their shots were on goal. Georgetown also held Denver to one goal in the first half of their earlier meeting, but in that meeting Denver got its offense going better in the second half. They never got momentum this time with Marrocco coming up big time and time again.
“He makes you think,” Tierney said. “He’s a big left-hander. They’ve done a good job of coaching him and getting him to be more poised than he has been in the past. He’s fabulous. That gives you confidence to slide around a little bit. They played a little bit of zone up top and slid to us quickly and we just didn’t move the ball well.”
A terrific feed from Georgetown’s Matt Behrens found Craig Berge at the doorstep for an easy score and a 6-1 lead four minutes into the third quarter.
Denver finally found the back of the net again more than 13 minutes into the third quarter. Rutan sent a behind-the-back shot in off a nice feed from behind the cage from Austin French to trim Georgetown’s lead to 6-2.
Georgetown re-established a five-goal edge when Wittenberg skipped a pass over the top of the defense to the right side of the goal for an easy shot for Behrens to start the fourth-quarter scoring. Wittenberg added another insurance goal on a rifle from up top with 8:48 left for an 8-2 lead that marked their largest of the game.
Denver answered 13 seconds later when Rutan completed his hat trick as he slipped around the Georgetown defense after taking a pass from Danny Logan, but there was no more scoring to be had.
“We knew how good they are,” said Georgetown captain Ryan Hursey. “It’s the Denver offense. They’re always one of the best. We had to get them to spots where Nick could see the shots as well as he could – (force) outside shots and try to have Nick see the ball. And try to get fast hands and we knew if we didn’t give them a chance to get their feet set and get them to take a shot from the outside we’d have some success. To hold them to three goals – any Division I team, especially Denver, to hold them to three goals is pretty incredible.”
Georgetown could upset any team if it plays as effectively as it did Saturday. With a strong group of seniors that has seen ups and downs in their careers, the Hoyas have plenty of motivation to keep their season going in the NCAA tournament.
“We weren’t going to let it end,” Marrocco said. “We really love each other. It gets a little emotional when you’re getting ready for a game that could be your last game and you have to leave everything out there on that field and live for each other and say we’re not ending this season today. I think that’s what we did today and the result is we’re going to the tournament which is great.”
The all-tournament team was: Cristian Cuccinello (Villanova), TJ Comizio (Villanova), John Wagner (Marquette), Cole Blazer (Marquette), Trevor Baptiste (Denver), Austin French (Denver), Dylan Gaines (Denver), Nick Marrocco (Georgetown), Lucas Wittenberg (Georgetown), Craig Berge (Georgetown) and Ryan Hursey (Georgetown).