Photo Gallery

Denver 6, Georgetown 5

Final Stats

WASHINGTON - Georgetown University's men's lacrosse team dropped a hard-fought 6-5 decision to visiting third-ranked Denver in BIG EAST action on Saturday afternoon. The one-goal loss is the second in as many games to open conference play this season.

Craig Berge (Massapequa, N.Y./Massapequa) led the Hoyas with three goals and an assist for four points. Lucas Wittenberg (Kennesaw, Ga./Harrison/Mercer) added a goal and an assist, Massimo Bucci (Ithaca, N.Y./IM Academy) tallied a pair of assists, Jake Carraway (Annapolis, Md./St. Mary's) scored a lone goal and Daniel Bucaro (East Setauket, N.Y./Ward Melville) had an assist.

Nick Marrocco (Duxbury, Mass./Duxbury) collected nine saves in goal for the Hoyas (6-3, 0-2 BIG EAST).

With scoring coming at a premium, both squads were extremely deliberate with their offensive possessions. Both teams combined for just 11 goals and 13 shot clock warnings in the game.

The six goals from Denver are the fewest scored by the Pioneers in more than 10 years. Georgetown assisted on all five of its goals on the day.

Denver (7-2, 1-0 BIG EAST) opened the scoring nearly five minutes into the first period, taking a 1-0 lead at the 10:16 mark. The Hoyas would respond less than a minute later as Berge notched his first goal of the game to knot things up at 1-1 before adding another goal with 2:33 remaining in the frame to give the Blue & Gray a 2-1 lead after the first.

In the second, Carraway provided the only offense for either team and gave GU a 3-1 lead courtesy of his lone goal of the day at the 6:10 mark. Georgetown blanked the Pioneers in the frame and held DU scoreless for a 21:42 stretch spanning the first three stanzas.

Coming out the halftime break, Denver and Georgetown traded goals twice to match each other the entire period. The Pioneers would cut their deficit to just one on two separate occasions, at 3-2 and 4-3, but a Wittenberg goal with 1:47 remaining gave GU a 5-3 lead going into the final 15 minutes of action.

In the fourth, Denver won the opening faceoff and scored just nine seconds into the period. The Pioneers then tied things up at 5-5 at the 12:51 mark and retook the lead with 7:20 to play. Georgetown had one final shot to send the game into overtime, forcing a turnover in their own defensive zone with 25 seconds remaining and calling a timeout following the clear with just eight ticks remaining. A long distance shot from Berge at the horn was stopped as the Pioneers held the Blue & Gray scoreless in the quarter to seal the victory.

Ethan Walker led Denver with two goals and an assists while Trevor Baptiste won 12-of-15 faceoffs and collected seven ground balls. Josh Matte (3-0) pick up the win between the pipes with seven saves on the day.

The Hoyas remain at home as they host Providence on Saturday, April 7 at 3 p.m.