PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The [RV/-] University of Denver men's lacrosse program took the lead into the second quarter, but an 8-2 run in the middle frames carried [10/12] Georgetown past the Pioneers 11-8 in the first of two BIG EAST Semifinals on Thursday night at Chapey Field at Anderson Stadium.
LEADERS:
Sophomore
Grayson Manning made 13 saves to finish over 50% once more. Manning broke Denver's program record for single-season saves with his 188
th stop of the campaign in the fourth quarter.
Junior
Russell Overly picked up five ground balls, forced two turnovers and scored a goal for the Pioneers. Overly became just the sixth pole in the program's DI era to pick up 50 ground balls in a season.
On the offensive side,
Marek Tzagournis had two goals and two assists for a four-point night.
Chase Bruno was Denver's other multi-goal scorer with a pair of 2-of-3 shooting.
Georgetown goalie Anderson Moore made 13 saves and faceoff specialist Ross Prince went 13-of-19 with seven ground balls.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
First Quarter:
Georgetown opened the scoring 18 seconds in when Denver got a transition goal off a ground ball and Rory Connor ended up wide open right on top of the crease for the first goal of the game.
At the midway point of the quarter,
Cody Malawsky got free at the top of the crease and
Luke Barkimer hit him in stride for the Pioneers first goal of the game to make it a 1-1 game. A couple of possessions later,
Chase Bruno got from X to the top of the crease to give the Pioneers their first lead of the day heading to the media timeout with 4:26 to go in the frame.
Denver took the one-goal lead into the first quarter break.
Second Quarter:
Georgetown scored the first two goals of the second quarter to take a 3-2 lead with 4:48 to go.
Chris Merageas provided the answer for Denver with 1:18 to play to even things back up at 3-3 on his sixth shot of the evening, but Georgetown's Liam Connor gave the Hoyas the lead going into the locker room after his goal with 18 seconds left in the second.
Grayson Manning and his counterpart Anderson Moore both made eight saves in the first half.
Third Quarter:
Georgetown scored the first three goals of the half in a span of 2:05 to stretch its lead out to four early in the third quarter.
Marek Tzagournis halted the Georgetown run with his first goal of the night with 10:03 to go in the frame.
Back-to-back Hoyas goals 1:40 apart stretched the regular season champions' lead out to 9-4 heading to the media timeout.
After the 5-1 third quarter, the Hoyas took a five-goal lead into the fourth.
Fourth Quarter:
The Hoyas opened the fourth quarter scoring to get to double figures and make it a 10-4 game with under 12 minutes to play. Georgetown made it back-to-back tallies on its next possession to stretch the lead to seven.
Denver responded with its first back-to-back goals since late in the first quarter.
Colin Komenda scored his second of the season, and then late in the shot clock, close defenseman
Russell Overly came across the midfield line and buried his second of the year from just inside the box to cut the deficit to 11-6 with 6:09 to go.
Bruno made it Denver's first three-goal run of the game with his second tally with 1:43 to go in regulation.
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