The seventh-seeded Hoyas, behind attackman Brian Minicus’s seven points and attackman Tucker Dordevic’s six goals, stretched their program-record winning streak to 13 in advancing to next weekend’s quarterfinals and defeated Yale for the first time after 10 straight losses.
Georgetown (13-3) rallied from a five-goal deficit in the first half to win its first NCAA tournament game in two years; it lost its opener a year ago to Delaware, 10-9. The reward for the Hoyas is a showdown with No. 2 seed Virginia next Saturday in Albany, N.Y.
“I kind of felt this team is different than teams past, and maybe it’s because we’re old,” Hoyas Coach Kevin Warne said. “But I felt like for us this game was so big because of last year’s disappointment at this time. Could we fight through it? It wasn’t going to be the, ‘Oh, my gosh, here we go again.’ We just fought, and they did an awesome job.”
Minicus delivered the decisive goal with 3:49 left in the fourth quarter, splitting a double team from behind the crease and beating goalie Jared Paquette with a diving strike for an 18-17 lead. Graduate midfielder Nicky Solomon added a goal, his fifth of the day, with 2:32 to play to all but seal the outcome.
Minicus finished with four goals and three assists, and Dordevic set the Georgetown single-season record for goals when he scored his fifth of the game in the second quarter. Dordevic, a transfer from Syracuse, has 63 on the year.
“Honestly, I’m just happy we won,” said Dordevic, who scored five times in the first half. “I know it’s cliche to say, but this group has been through a lot. We didn’t start the way we wanted to. It’s a new bunch of guys starting at the beginning of the year, and we’ve worked our tail off every single day in everything we do, and it’s paying dividends.”
The teams went back and forth during a dizzying third quarter in which the Hoyas led by three goals before Yale (9-6) unleashed a 6-1 run to take a 15-13 lead with 5:57 to go. Sophomore attackman Leo Johnson registered a hat trick in the quarter.
Georgetown countered with consecutive goals to close the third quarter and knot the score at 15. Junior midfielder Aidan Carroll scored the first, and Bundy recorded his second goal of the game with 4:24 remaining thanks to an assist from Minicus.
Goalie Danny Hincks (10 saves) also began to settle in for the Hoyas after he allowed a goal on a slow bouncer late in the third quarter. Hincks made four consecutive stops, dropping to his knees several times, to prevent the Bulldogs from increasing their advantage.
A stirring rally in the second quarter erased a five-goal deficit and put the Hoyas ahead at halftime 10-9. Georgetown scored four in a row to open the quarter, including in unsettled situations after they forced turnovers in the defensive zone.
Bundy’s goal with two minutes left until halftime tied the score at 9 and came on an acrobatic assist from Minicus, who slipped while being guarded by defenseman Jake Cohen (Landon School), briefly lost the ball and gathered it before delivering a pass to a cutting Bundy.
Fifty-three seconds later Solomon scored the go-ahead goal for the Hoyas, collecting a feed just off the crease from junior attackman TJ Haley (St. John’s College High). Solomon is one of the Hoyas’ three graduate transfers who played at North Carolina before arriving on the Hilltop.
Midfielder Jacob Kelly and defenseman Will Bowen, the Big East defensive player of the year, are the others on a roster heavily reliant on graduate transfers, including Hincks (Dartmouth) and Minicus (Colgate), who entered the weekend second on the Hoyas in points.
After taking a one-goal lead midway through the first quarter, Georgetown found itself trailing 8-3 amid careless turnovers, failures to secure 50-50 groundballs and miscommunication on defense that allowed the potent Bulldogs attack clean shooting lanes.
The eight goals allowed were the most Georgetown has surrendered in any quarter this season.
Georgetown has not lost since a 15-8 defeat against Notre Dame on Feb. 25 dropped it to 0-3.
“The 0-3 start has fueled us,” Minicus said. “It’s obviously great to say we’ve won 13 in a row, but it’s really just one more win. I think it’s a great accomplishment having 13 wins in a row, but each week we feel like we’re getting better, and to be honest I don’t think we’ve played our best lacrosse.”