MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow could stop
Jimmy Perkins from going postal, but that didn't stop Georgetown from sneaking out of Joe Walton Stadium with a 12-11 win Saturday afternoon in the home opener for the
Robert Morris men's lacrosse team.
The redshirt junior attackman from nearby Quaker Valley High School, who was named an NEC Prime Performer for his single-game RMU record six assists Feb. 9, stayed hot in the Greater Pittsburgh cold with his first collegiate hat trick and a team-best six points in a back-and-forth battle with the Hoyas (2-0).
Perkins has racked up six goals and 15 points already for the Colonials (1-2), who took their first lead on his second tally with just under ten minutes to play in the first quarter after a deliberate Georgetown possession ending in the first of four Daniel Bucaro goals opened the scoring 2:08 into the contest.
Moments earlier, a well-placed shot by Perkins in tight after curling to the left side from behind the net had tied the game at one. Fellow attacker
Corson Kealey picked up the assist and now has six points (4 G, 2 A) through the first three games of his Robert Morris career.
Georgetown rallied for three straight before
Adrian Torok-Orban responded with a tough-angle goal from the right lip of the crease. The Toronto-born senior, with that, became just the ninth player in RMU history to register 70 for his career.
Bucaro gave the Hoyas a 5-3 lead in the second quarter, but the Colonials had more answers. Perkins set up
Matt Schmidt on the left wing, and he made it a one-goal game with 1:28 until the horn with his third of the year, then, less than a minute later, they forced an egregious turnover by otherwise sharp keeper Nick Marrocco near midfield. Perkins raced down the far sideline and fired it from distance into the vacant goal to tie things up again.
A four-goal run that began just before halftime put GU back in control. Schmidt stopped the bleeding with a man-up goal 6:16 into the third quarter, then
Tyson Gibson looked off a defender to catch Marrocco off guard with a shot right through the middle of the attacking zone a few minutes later.
Gibson's nifty backhanded shot from the right side with the shot clock ticking, which netted his fourth goal of the season and lit up the Robert Morris sideline, cut the deficit to 10-9 with 8:25 left in regulation.
A fourth goal by Jake Carraway, the man who beat the second quarter clock, with the Hoyas a man up seemed to put the match out of reach with 3:05 to play until sophomore
Ryan Smith countered not quite a minute later, thanks to a cross-crease pass from Perkins.
With just 12 seconds left, Schmidt, remarkably, found the net under duress from ten yards out for his second of the game from Perkins, giving the Colonials hope after the Hoyas had missed a couple cracks at an exposed RMU net. Georgetown, however, won the ensuing faceoff to secure its survival.
Perkins, furthermore, contributed one of five caused turnovers by his team and collected two ground balls. Sophomore FOGO
Trey Arnold and junior long-stick midfielder
Jack Toomb, the reigning Northeast Conference Defensive Player of the Week, co-led the Colonials with five of those.
Toomb also chipped in one assist and one caused turnover.
Robert Morris hits the road again to end the month of February, paying No. 16 Penn State a noon visit next Saturday.
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