Phillylcrosse.com, Posted 3/26/14
From Press Release
A seven-goal third quarter made the difference as Villanova pulled away from Georgetown and posted a 13-8 victory over the Hoyas on Wednesday afternoon at Villanova Stadium.
Anchored by the four goal, one assist performance of sophomore Tim Mulrenan, the Wildcats claimed their fourth straight win over Georgetown dating back to 2012 and their second straight victory on the season after defeating Marquette last weekend.
With the win, Villanova improves to 3-5 overall and 2-0 in the conference while Georgetown moves to 3-6 on the year and 0-2 in the BIG EAST. Today’s contest was played following the Tuesday night postponement of the game after heavy snow and inclement weather forced the contest to be moved to Wednesday afternoon.
A high-octane third period gave the Wildcats their second straight BIG EAST win as they scored seven unanswered goals in a matter of 8:10 from five different players. Following two goals from Georgetown coming out of intermission where the Hoyas tied the game at 4-4, the Wildcats pulled away with scores from Johnny Gallaway, Eric Gartner (Great Valley), John LoCascio, Jack Curran, Devin McNamara and Mulrenan to post their biggest lead of the game at 11-4 with 2:15 left in the stanza.
Georgetown broke the Wildcat scoring streak with six seconds remaining in the period when Peter Conley closed the Villanova lead to 11-5.
The Hoyas responded in the fourth quarter by outscoring the Wildcats by a 3-2 margin for the final 15 minutes of play. Two goals in under two minutes at the 7:54 and 6:27 marks gave the visitors a fighting chance as they closed the Villanova lead at 12-7, but it wouldn’t be enough to overcome the Villanova advantage.
Tallies from Villanova’s McNamara and Georgetown’s Grant Fisher concluded the contest at 13-8 in favor of the Wildcats.
A low-scoring first half saw just a 1-1 score after the first quarter of play. Georgetown got on the board first when Bo Stafford found an open Devon Lewis to open the contest. Villanova responded just over three minutes later when Frederick connected with O’Neil to tie the game at 1-1.
Georgetown also opened up scoring to begin the second period, but three of Mulrenan’s four goals were tallied in a matter of 7:22 at the 9:37, 6:14 and 2:15 marks to give the Wildcats a 4-3 advantage heading into halftime.
Villanova would come out of intermission with their game-changing third quarter performance to push them into the lead which would stand for the remainder of the contest.
Eight different Wildcats posted points on the day while each of those scorers provided at least two points in the victory. Georgetown was led by Reilly O’Connor who tallied two goals and three assists for five points.
Defensively, LoCascio tallied five ground balls and had three caused turnovers while senior faceoff specialist Thomas Croonquist went 11-of-23 at X and captured seven ground balls. Freshman goalkeeper Dan Willis (Moorestown) posted six saves in the win.
Villanova will return to action this coming Saturday, March 29th when they travel to State College, Pa. to take on No. 17 Penn State. Game time is slated for 2 p.m. and will be broadcast live on the Big Ten Sports Network.
NOTES: Today’s game marked the Wildcats highest scoring game of the season…. The third quarter was the highest scoring period of the season… It also marked the most goals Villanova has scored in a quarter since scoring seven in the 3rd quarter against Providence just a year ago on April 27th, 2013… Tim Mulrenan tallied a career high in goals (he previously posted three goals vs. Penn earlier this year)… Austin Frederick had a career high assists today, which also marked the most assists in a game by any Villanova player this season… Villanova has won four straight games against Georgetown dating back to 2012. The Hoyas had won the previous nine meetings.
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