Dan Gelfand/The Hoya Junior forward Trevor Goodrich tussles with an opposing player for the ball during an unusually physical battle against Providence.

It’s either the best of times or the worst of times for the men’s soccer team during this inconsistent season, and the past week typified this with Dickensian plot twists with melodramatic highs and lows. Georgetown cruised past the Virginia ilitary Institute 4-0 on Wednesday and dominated Providence in the first half on Saturday only to fall apart amid pushing and fighting in the second half, eventually losing 3-1.

“We started out with a lot of energy. I don’t know what happened later. We became complacent,” junior forward Paul Brandley said. “It’s put us up against the wall right now.”

While the previous week featured a close 2-1 victory over Virginia Tech in overtime followed by a disappointing but close defeat at the hands of top-echelon Notre Dame 2-1, this week started off with a fairly laid-back affair against VMI at Pachin Field in Lexington, Va. Only 101 Keydets trudged out to watch their team, 2-7 at the time, face the Blue and Gray on a cold and windy day.

Maybe it was better that the Keydets stayed away from the field; the sight was not pretty for VMI fans. While the Hoyas only outshot their competition 4-3 in the first half, all the best opportunities came to the visiting team.

Sophomore forward Kemmons Feldman opened the scoring in the 17th minute, blasting in the goal with assists from junior defender Dan Gargan and freshman forward Ricky Schramm. The goal was the first this season for Feldman, last year’s leading goal scorer who has struggled to find the back of the net this season.

Schramm dished out another assist just under seven minutes later, with 23:30 having elapsed since the start, when he passed the ball to fellow freshman, midfielder Daniel Grasso, who picked up his first goal of the game by sending the ball past VMI senior goalkeeper Brian Douglas for Georgetown’s second goal. The team remained quiet for the rest of the half, leaving the field at halftime with a comfortable 2-0 lead.

“When we play good soccer, the results take care of themselves,” Tabatznik said.

The second half was even more one-sided than the first with the Hoyas striking early and definitively. Five minutes after the start of the half, senior midfielder Carl Skanderup picked up his second goal of the season, unassisted, giving the team a commanding 3-0 lead. Grasso sealed the victory six minutes later, taking a pass from junior midfielder Trevor Goodrich and grabbing his second goal.

The Keydets could only muster two shots in the second half and yielded to the superior play of the Hoyas. Georgetown capped their easiest game of the season with a 4-0 shutout and 12 shots, 11 on goal according to the statistic sheets. Senior goalkeeper Tim Hogan and his freshman protege Andrew Keszler teamed up for the shutout; Hogan made four saves while Keszler grabbed the final one. Keszler’s 17:30 minutes guarding the net mark his longest stay on the field this season.

Georgetown’s Saturday contest against Providence started with showers, but by the time the two soccer squads showed up on North Kehoe Field, the weather had brightened, lending a sunny and breezy atmosphere to the game. The game started pleasant enough for Georgetown as well, as the team came out strong, attacking Providence’s goal.

After 20 minutes, the Friar defense began to crack and Georgetown came up with solid opportunities. After a few misdirected shots failed to go in, junior forward Kaiser Chowdhry rushed into the fray against Providence’s goalkeeper and several defenders. Brandley was nearby to receive a pass and in the confusion surrounding the goal, he managed to nudge the ball over the goal line to light up the scoreboard.

While the Hoyas remained in charge throughout the remainder of the first half, the team could not find the goal again and the score remained 1-0 after the buzzer sounded.

The Friars’ junior goalkeeper, Jeff Newman, was kept busy throughout the half and made three saves while Hogan stayed untested down at the Hoyas’ end of the field.

The second half featured a series of twists and turns for Georgetown as the team became progressively more rattled and less confident on the field while physical combat overtook the field.

“If you give the second half to a team in the Big East, they’re going to take it every time,” Gargan said. “We came out flat. We had no effort.”

The first yellow card came 45 seconds into the second half when Friar sophomore forward Eoin Lynch, a fiery tempered player, started getting excessively physical, setting the mood for the next 44 minutes. Providence provided more gall in the second half, not only initiating the on-field fury, but also pressing deep into the Hoyas’ territory. Sophomore midfielder Derek Nobrega stirred feelings when he became entangled with Hogan after the Friar’s attack on the goal, and Nobrega proceeded to hit Hogan while the two attempted to extricate themselves from the mess. A few minutes later, Providence recovered the ball and moved downfield.

“Players weren’t in the right places. We weren’t helping each other out or giving support. We weren’t playing where we were supposed to,” Brandley said

There the first of three yellow cards for the Hoyas was issued to Chowdhry. After the penalty, freshman midfielder David Chase spotted Lynch open in the right corner of the box and passed him the ball. Lynch booted the ball into Hogan and it bounced off the Hoya goaltender, spinning into the left corner of the goal.

Less than a minute later, Friar sophomore midfielder Ian Wexler broke free of two defenders and put the ball past Hogan and into the left corner to put his team on top, 2-1.

The Hoyas moved up around the sideline, leading to pushing and heated emotions as the crowd became involved. The incident ended in a yellow card for Convey and further soured the mood on the field.

“We need to have more discipline on the field,” Brandley said, referring to the slew of yellow cards and fouls that marked the second half.

The death knell sounded for the Hoyas in the last five minutes of the game. Gargan received a yellow card during an exchange with a Providence attacker. Shortly after the penalty, Lynch dribbled around some defenders and past the goalie and fired the ball. One defender attempted to head the ball away, but the ball was steadfast in its trajectory and ended up in the goal.

“I’m very disappointed in our team. When it got into things getting rough, we played right into them and didn’t focus on soccer,” Tabatznik said.

Providence, enjoying a fairly strong season, moves up to 5-4-1 for the season and 3-1-1 in the Big East. The Hoyas, however, fall under .500 again with a 4-5-2 record this season and a 1-4-0 in the conference. While Providence currently enjoys the second place spot in the Big East standings, the Hoyas share the next to last spot with only three points so far.

Tomorrow’s game against the University of Maryland, the nation’s top team in both major soccer polls, will be a definite challenge. Last year the Hoyas fell to the Terps 2-0 on North Kehoe when Maryland was ranked second in the polls. This year, Maryland looks even stronger and remains undefeated.

Now that Big East play is half finished, the team must assess its performance before heading into a string of four important games against conference opponents beginning next Sunday.

“Year to year it takes five wins to get into the tournament,” Gargan said. “We’ve got to refocus and we’ve got to come ready to play each time.”

If that is so, it will take a large effort on the part of the Hoyas to win four of their last five in order to return to the Big East postseason tournament, a tradition that the team does not want to forsake during their celebratory 50th season. Tabatznik believes the team has the ability, if not right now the focus or determination.

“They have to focus on the next game, and start doing the right thing. We’re good enough to win, but to be consistent takes a lot of courage,” he said.