Washington DC – Tomorrow at 12 p.m. the Georgetown Hoyas square off against the Marquette Golden Eagles for their first Big East games of the season.
The Golden Eagles of Marquette University have literally had an up-and-down season thus far. They have flipped flopped wins and losses every game this season and last week being their most recent loss. The Golden Eagles are coming into Georgetown tomorrow off a 12-7 loss to Saint Joseph’s.
The problem for the Golden Eagles is this year is clearly consistency or lack thereof. They have a great chance tomorrow to come into D.C. and steal a win away from their bitter rivals, the Hoyas, and start a new winning streak of their own. If they want to have any chance of pulling this upset, the Golden Eagles will need stellar games from their freshman phenom Conor Gately and Bryan Badolato, both scoring from their attack positions. The Golden Eagles defense also needs to put great pressure on the Hoya offense because so far this season, the Marquette goalie, JJ Sagl, is giving up a very poor 12 goals a game, which is not going to get it done against the Hoyas offense.
At the start of the season the Georgetown Hoyas had high expectations, but so far this season the expectations have only become harder to reach. The Hoyas have lost four of their last five games and five of their eight total games. In the eyes of the Hoyas, tomorrow’s game needs to go down in the win column and it is definitely possible. For the Hoyas to win tomorrow, like all teams, they need their veteran leaders to play like they are the leaders.
Remember, the Hoyas have only disappointed this season and they need to turn it around. Sophomore attackman Reilly O’Connor and junior attackman Jeff Fountain have got to play like team leading scorers because they are. If the team leaders can score and score often, that will only boost the confidence of the remaining members of the team. And just like was said for the Golden Eagles, the Hoyas net-minder, Jake Haley, has had a rough start to his season as well and needs help and pressure from his defense to secure a safe and crucial win for his Hoyas.
