McCormick, Casey Provide the Offense Over Final 3 Quarters
By Jeff Nelson
Special to The Washington Post
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Georgetown Prep senior Kevin McCormick doesn't know why, but he and his teammates typically are a little slow to start games.
That pattern continued when the Little Hoyas fell behind by three goals against No. 4 St. Albans yesterday in Northwest Washington. And McCormick said things got stressful.
"But," he added, "we're constantly taught that any team can come back. . . . So we didn't let it get to us. We just started scoring and didn't stop."
McCormick put No. 2 Georgetown Prep on the board early in the second quarter. And the Little Hoyas scored eight of the next nine goals en route to a 10-5 win over their Interstate Athletic Conference rivals.
Georgetown Prep (11-2), last year's regular season IAC champion, is 3-0 in the league with two IAC games remaining. The Little Hoyas play at Episcopal on April 22 and at home against Landon -- the only other 3-0 team -- on April 25.
"Beating a team like [St. Albans] is great, especially by a score like this," said McCormick, who finished with three goals. "It gives us great confidence going into the Landon game."
St. Albans (8-3, 1-2) won the IAC tournament title last year, and therefore earned the season's co-championship with Georgetown Prep based on the league's setup.
"This is not the situation you want to be in," Bulldogs Coach Malcolm Lester said. "So now we're just going to have to focus on each league game and hope that somebody beats somebody else."
Georgetown Prep will be hard to beat if it plays like it did for the final three quarters yesterday. Seven players scored on a series of blistering shots; sophomore Robert Posniewski led a hard-hitting defense that didn't allow anything easy after the first quarter; and junior goalie John Kemp got better as the game went on and finished with 12 saves.
"We're really sick of hearing about the [IAC] co-champion thing" from last season, said junior Brian Casey, who finished with three goals and two assists. "So we really want to beat everyone."
Gonzaga Rallies for WinWith 1 minute 20 seconds left in sudden-death overtime, Gonzaga senior Shane Elie scored the winning goal for an 8-7 victory over host Good Counsel in a Washington Catholic Athletic Conference matchup.
Gonzaga trailed by two late in the fourth quarter, but junior Taylor Hanley scored the last of his four goals with 2:47 remaining and junior Josh Furnary tied it eight seconds later.
In a game between two programs striving to join DeMatha and St. Mary's Ryken among the league's elite, the difference-making play came about abruptly.
"Shane had been shut off the entire game," Gonzaga Coach Casey O'Neill said, "and the one time he gets the ball, it's out of a scrum and he wins the game."
Eagles goalie Conor Baucum, a junior, also had a big night. He had 25 saves for Gonzaga (9-2 overall, 2-1 WCAC). Tenth-ranked Good Counsel dropped to 9-3, 2-1.
Good Week for WoottonSenior Harry Shay and sophomore Jeff Zifrony scored three goals apiece as Wootton concluded a big week with a 12-8 win at Bethesda-Chevy Chase.
The win gave the Patriots (5-1, 3-0) three victories in the past five days against Montgomery 4A/3A West Division opponents.
They also defeated Churchill on the road Monday and Walter Johnson at home Wednesday.
"It's huge because they're all division games," Wootton Coach Colin Thomson said. "We're not finished with division games yet and we're still a ways off, but it's a good beginning of the season for us."
The Patriots gained a 6-4 advantage at halftime and pulled away in the third quarter.
The Barons fell to 4-2 overall, 1-1 in the league.
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