On a rainy night in Washington D.C. the Greyhounds (7-1) pulled out a second straight one-goal win. Nikko Pontrello scored his third goal of the night with 54 seconds remaining to help the Hounds grind out their seventh straight victory 10-9.
This matchup was the 37th all-time between the Greyhounds and the Hoyas (3-5); the victory now gives Loyola a 31-7 advantage in the overall series.
Georgetown got off to a quick start, scoring the games first two goals in a rainy first half. The Hoyas used a dominant performance from Tyler Knarr at the faceoff X to keep the Hounds on their heals all night. The skilled long-pole midfielder went 15 for 22 for the game. The first quarter was a back and forth affair, with the Hoyas pulling ahead and allowing the Greyhounds to draw even shortly after. At the end of the first frame the score was knotted at 3, with Pat Laconi, Matt Sawyer, and Kevin Ryan notching scores. In the second half Georgetown quickly took back the lead off a man-up goal from Bo Stafford in the first minute. Justin Ward and Tyler Albrecht would score back-to-back goals in the next two minutes to give Loyola their first lead of the game, 5-4. Georgetown however, would control the ball and the clock for the remainder of the half, holding Loyola scoreless and finding the net twice to regain the lead going into halftime.
The second half opened in similar fashion for the Hoyas, with Charles McCormick finding the net quickly to push the lead to two. After a brief timeout Charley Toomey’s squad would string together a three-goal run to regain the lead. Brian Schultz would score off a feed from Justin Ward with just over 9:30 to go, followed by Pontrello and again by Schultz.
Georgetown would score the first two of the fourth quarter to take a 9-8 advantage, before Loyola’s Nikko Pontrello scored to tie the game with just less than eight minutes remaining.
The game would remain deadlocked at 9-9 until Pontrello, the nations leading scorer, broke through for his third of the game to give the Greyhounds the win.
Loyola outshot the Hoyas 33-28 for the game but trailed 15-7 in faceoffs. Loyola’s usually effective extra-man offense was help scoreless in four tries.
The Greyhounds return to Patriot League action on Saturday vs. Lafayette in Baltimore.