April 11, 2015 Final Stats
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Freshman Luke Palmadesso matched a career-high winning 22-of-26 (.846) faceoff's against No. 17 Georgetown but it wouldn't be enough as the Hoyas tallied a 17-8 win over Villanova on Saturday afternoon in Washington, D.C.
Villanova led the scoresheet and outshot Georgetown by a 46-39 margin and also held a 35-30 advantage in ground balls for the afternoon, but 17 turnovers including 11 in the first half stifled the offensive production for the visiting Wildcats.
The loss marks the fifth straight for Villanova this season as they fell to 5-6 overall and 0-3 in the BIG EAST. Georgetown improved to 8-4 overall and 3-1 in league action with the win.
The two sides began the game trading scores between Bo Stafford and Jack Curran at the 10:38 and 10:05 marks before the Hoyas went on a three-goal run to make it 4-1 with 1:59 remaining in the first quarter. Villanova's Johnny Gallaway finished out the stanza with 18 seconds left to close the Georgetown lead to 4-2 heading into the second quarter.
Georgetown increased that lead to 6-2 with scores from Joe Bucci and Craig Berge to open the second period before Villanova's Christian Cuccinello cut the lead in half to make it a 6-3 game with 8:41 to play before intermission. Another three goal run by the Hoyas was stopped in the final 38 seconds of the stanza by Charlie Horning as the hosts took a 9-4 lead into halftime.
Coming out of the locker rooms, the Wildcats bookended the third quarter with goals from Danny Seibel and Cuccinello while Georgetown notched four unanswered goals in just over five minutes of play as the Hoyas increased their lead to 13-6.
Georgetown would go on to outscore Villanova by a 4-2 margin in the fourth quarter to finalize the contest at 17-8 with goals coming from Seibel and Kurtis Naslonski for the Wildcats.
The Hoyas were led by the combined 12 point performances of Bo Stafford (2g, 4a) and Reilly O'Connor (5g, 1a) while goalkeeper Nike Marrocco tallied 18 saves in the win. Villanova's Dan Willis registered eight saves in the loss.
Villanova will return to action a week from today when they host St. John's on Saturday, April 18th. Game time is slated for 7 p.m. at Villanova Stadium and will serve as Senior Day for the Wildcats six members of the Class of 2015.
