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Georgetown 13, Villanova 10

Final Stats

VILLANOVA, Pa. - The second-seeded Georgetown University team defeated third seed host Villanova, 13-10, on Thursday night to advance to the 2018 BIG EAST Men's Lacrosse Championship final presented by Jeep. The No. 17/18 Hoyas earned their 11th win of the season, the most since 2007, with their second win of the year over the No. 12/14 Wildcats.

Craig Berge (Massapequa, N.Y./Massapequa) led Georgetown (11-4) with four goals and an assist while Lucas Wittenberg (Kennesaw, Ga./Harrison/Mercer) added a goal and three assists and Robert Clark (Cooksville, Md./McDonogh School) had two goals and an assist. In all, nine different Hoyas scored goals in the game, including lone goals by Jake Carraway (Annapolis, Md./St. Mary's), Zeke Morrill (Baltimore, Md./Gilman/Deerfield), Ryan Hursey (Finksburg, Md./Westminster), Matt Behrens (Bronxville, N.Y./Bronxville), Greg Galligan (Oyster Bay Cove, N.Y./St. Anthony's) and Austin McDonald (Olney, Md./Georgetown Prep).

Behrens and Carraway also tallied assists for the Blue & Gray.

In goal, Nick Marrocco (Duxbury, Mass./Duxbury) posted his second double-digit save performance against Villanova this season. He stopped 12 Wildcat shots on the day and shut VU out in the third quarter.

Peter Tagliaferri (Danville, Calif./San Ramon Valley) was dominant at the `X', winning 19-of-24 (.791) faceoffs on the day. He posted clean sheets in both the first and third quarters and led all players with 10 ground balls.

Four different Hoyas scored goals in the opening quarter as the Blue & Gray went on a 4-0 run following Villanova's opening score. Carraway kicked off the scoring, curling around the crease from behind the cage to beat the Wildcat keeper far post and knot the score at 1-1. Another potential goal by Carraway was called off for diving in the crease, but VU was penalized on the play, which led to a man-up goal from Morrill courtesy of Clark. Berge made it a 3-1 game by firing home a long range shot off of a cross-field pass from Behrens and Hursey closed out the scoring with a fake-pass juke to beat his defender and score with a high bounce shot with five seconds remaining. Tagliaferri won all six faceoffs in the frame.

Villanova (10-5) struck first in the second frame, scoring 2:29 into the quarter to cut GU's lead to 4-2. The Hoyas answered almost immediately, as Clark collected a pass from Berge while backpedaling in front of the goal before finding the back of the cage. Both squads would trade goals once again in the frame, including a Behrens goal assisted from Wittenberg, to give the Blue & Gray a 6-3 lead but the Wildcats scored back-to-back goals just 32 seconds apart to pull within one, down 6-5 with 5:24 remaining in the half. Galligan, Georgetown's seventh different goal scorer in as many goals, fired home a shot in transition to give GU another two-point lead with 3:03 remaining, but the Wildcats managed a goal with 1.4 seconds left in the half to cut the Hoya lead to 7-6 at the break.

Defense reigned supreme in the third quarter as only two goals total were scored, both by Georgetown. McDonald and Wittenberg became the eighth and ninth Hoyas to score in the game, respectively, to give the Blue & Gray a 9-6 lead. Marrocco shut out the Wildcats with four saves in the period, Tagliaferri posted another perfect stanza at the `X' and the Hoyas killed their only penalty of the game to that point.

In the fourth, back-to-back goals from Berge at the 7:16 and 5:24 marks gave the Hoyas an 11-7 lead but Villanova wasn't going down without a fight. The Wildcats stormed back, scoring three goals in 55 seconds to pull within one at 11-10. Georgetown clamped down from there, posting consecutive goals and winning both faceoffs to seal the 13-10 victory.

Christian Cuccinello led Villanova with three goals. Michael Toomey collected 10 saves in goal in the loss.

Georgetown advances to face top-seeded Denver in the championship game on Saturday at 2 p.m. The Pioneers defeated Marquette in the other semifinal to advance.