Had the Georgetown men’s soccer team been able to maintain the intensity they showed for a few brief minutes, they may have been able to defeat Big East foe Boston College on Saturday. As it was, the Hoyas found themselves with in trouble early and struggled throughout before falling to the Eagles 3-1.

Georgetown (3-5, 2-2 Big East) gave up control of the game tempo as quickly as they gave up control of the game. Boston College (5-1, 3-0 Big East) corralled a misplayed ball in front of the Georgetown goal and redirected it toward the back of the net. Less than nine minutes into the contest, the Hoyas found themselves in the hole.

“When the whistle blew they were ready to play and we weren’t. It took us 15 minutes and our backs against the wall already to start playing soccer,” Head Coach Keith Tabatznik said.

Georgetown was able to stop all but one of Boston College’s eight shots in the first half. They also took six shots of their own but were unable to put a tally on the board. Junior keeper Tim Hogan had four saves for the game, as did BC’s goalie Kyle Singer. The Hoyas were outshot 19-13 in the loss, however.

Georgetown spent the rest of the first half trying to recover from the early goal. In the middle of the period Georgetown’s defense showed signs of life but was unable to revive its offense.

“We let it slip away. We didn’t finish the first half,” senior forward Dan Gargan said. “They had the goal early but I thought after about 15 minutes into the game we had all the pressure and all the play in the game.”

The Hoyas regrouped during the break and came back to the game with a renewed sense of purpose. They maintained near-exclusive control of the ball for the first 20 minutes of the second half, but were still unable to capitalize. Soon Georgetown’s offense began to sputter and its defense faltered.

Boston College took advantage of Georgetown’s mistakes. The Eagles slipped a shot past Hogan to go up 2-1. Less than two minutes later, Boston College tallied their third goal of the game to put it all but out of reach for the Hoyas.

“We came out right away in the second and played hard for about 20 or 25 minutes. They slipped in that second goal and I think our morale went down,” Gargan said. “Then they had the third goal, which killed us.”

Less than 20 seconds after Boston College’s third goal, sophomore midfielder Trevor Goodrich found freshman forward Benjamin Jefferson-Dow near the BC goal, who finally put Georgetown on the scoreboard. It was too little and too late for the Hoyas, however, as they were unable to score again in the final 16 minutes.

Tabatznik blames the loss on the team’s preparation. “It has everything to do with before the game. The guys have to prepare themselves mentally for a game,” he said. “They didn’t do it today, they did it last week – what a difference in a week. From walking on the field a week ago and you could sense how focused they were, to today and they were dancing to the music in warm-ups.”

The game was a physical one for both sides from the outset. Several skirmishes broke out throughout the game but were quickly put down by the officials. The two teams combined for a total of 29 fouls and three yellow cards. Early in the second half, play was halted when freshman defender Dan Pydo went down hard after stopping an assault on the Georgetown goal. He was carted off the field with a brace on his leg. He is listed as “day to day.”

Georgetown takes on Princeton today at 3:30 p.m. on North Kehoe Field. The Tigers are 1-3-2 following a loss to Dartmouth in which their senior All-American goalie was injured.

“We’ve got a big one Tuesday,” Gargan said. “So we’ve got to come out ready to play. We’ve just got to get back on the same page.”