WHERE: @ Georgetown
WHEN: Wednesday March 19 @ 6:00
Loyola is one of, if not the hottest team in the country right now. After losing their season opener by one goal in overtime to Virginia, the Hounds have won six straight games, four of which have come against ranked teams. If the defense hadn’t collapsed worse than the Titanic in open ocean waters, the Hound would be 7-0 right now and have a real argument for the No. 1 spot in college lacrosse.
On Wednesday, they travel to Georgetown to take on a feisty Hoyas team who has already played in three one-goal games, being on the losing end of two of them. If the ball bounces their way once or twice, the Hoyas would be 5-2 right now and possibly ranked in the Top 20. Instead, they settle for a 3-4 record as head coach Kevin Warne continues to rebuild a traditional lacrosse power.
Here is what should you should expect when the two in-state teams clash Wednesday night.
Loyola Offense vs. Georgetown Defense
Edge: Loyola
Not even going to surgarcoat things here, outside of their previous game against Navy, this offense has put in at least 13 goals in every game it has played in and as a result, they are ranked as the fourth best offense in the nation. On the other hand, Georgetown’s defense is average at best, ranking 31st in scoring defense as they are allowing close to 10 goals a game.
Georgetown will have a tough time holding down the talented attack unit of Matt Sawyer, Nikko Pontrello and Brian Schultz. One could argue that the Hound have the best attack lines in the nation as Sawyer leads the way with 30 points while Pontrello and Schultz have added 28 and 18 points resectively.
Another reason for the huge disparity in this matchup, the goalie play of Georgetown. Jake Haley has been unimpressive this season as he currently is only saving 49 percent of the shots he is seeing. By the way, Georgetown’s last opponent, St. Johns, beat the Hoyas 15-7, who have the 17th ranked offense in the nation.
Imagine what the fourth best offense will do on Wednesday night. Check and mate to the Hounds.
Loyola Defense vs. Georgetown Offense
Edge: Loyola
Another clear advantage here. After allowing 14 goals to Virginia and 11 to Penn State, the defense has been air tight. Joe Fletcher, the nation’s best defender and only college player to be on the Team USA roster has led the resurgence on defense and now has the defense ranked as the No. 6 unit in the nation. They are allowing 7.6 goals a game and shut down who many thought would be the top attack line in the nation in Duke’s star studded unit. They held Duke’s attack to a combined four points!
Georgetown’s offense does have some solid threats, as they employ a four-man rotation at attack led by freshman Peter Conley. Conley, who may be one of the nation’s best freshmen that no one has heard of, leads the team with 23 points while Bo Stafford, Reilly O’Connor and Jeff Fountain have put up 16, 13, and 11 points respectively. However, as mentioned above, the defensive unit of Loyola is more than equipped to handle them.
Final note, Hounds goalie Jack Runkel has stepped it up since his poor three-save performance in the season opener. He has two games where he has saved 80 percent of the shots he has seen, a 70 percent save percentage last week against Army where he saved 19-of-25 shots and three other games above 53 percent.
Faceoffs
Edge: Georgetown
This is a slight advantage to Georgetown. Tyler Knarr has been great at the faceoff “X” as he has won 61.8 percent of the faceoffs he has taken, or 94-of-152. He also has four points on the season as well, so he is a threat to score if he can win it forward and the defense chooses to hold their slides too long.
Meanwhile, after looking great early on, Loyola faceoff man Graham Savio has struggled in the last two games winning only 10-of-21 faceoffs against Duke. While he has a nice excuse built into the Duke game as he went against one of the nation’s best faceoff men in Brendan Fowler, he followed up that performance by going 3-of-9 against Army before Blake Burkhardt replaced him and won 4-of-7.
Prediction
While the Hoyas may have the advantage at the faceoff “X,” the Hounds have shown that they don’t have to win the faceoff battle to win the game. Loyola has the better offense and defense compared to the Hoyas and this should be a close game early on because it is an in-state rivalry game. However, as the game wears on Loyola has the more talented roster and should pull away in the second half.
Loyola 12, Georgetown 7
