Sandwiched between a home victory against then-No. 19 Delaware and an upcoming visit from No. 9 Duke, Sunday’s visit to winless Providence held the potential to be a letdown game for Georgetown. But a rock-solid defense and first-half hat tricks from Andrew Brancaccio and Travis Comeau allowed the No. 9 Hoyas (4-2) to ease past Providence (0-5) for a 14-4 victory.

“We certainly didn’t want to look past Providence, and they certainly didn’t,” Georgetown Head Coach Dave Urick said. “I think the seniors certainly asserted themselves a little bit and made sure we did what we needed to do up there, and now it’s a matter of getting ready for Duke.”

The freshman Comeau – making his first career start in the absence of senior Rickey Mirabito – opened the scoring just 56 seconds into the game off a feed from junior and fellow attack Ryan Shuler; Brancaccio made it 2-0 just over a minute later. Then senior attack Craig Dowd fed sophomore attack Zack Angel to give the Hoyas a three-goal lead after just five minutes.

The Hoyas continued the assault on the Providence goal, attempting 13 shots to the Friars’ one, but the score remained 3-0 through the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter Georgetown recorded another five goals while continuing to keep Providence off the scoreboard, and by halftime the game was beyond doubt.

Junior Brian Tabb, who won 12 of 16 faceoffs on the day, won the faceoff to start the quarter and pushed the ball upfield to Dowd. The Hoyas’ leader in assists sent a pass across the crease to Comeau, who buried his second of the game to start the second quarter scoring spree. Freshman Zach Guy scored his first of two goals, Brancaccio put in two man-up goals for his hat trick and then Comeau scored his third of four in the game to give the Hoyas an 8-0 halftime lead.

“You certainly don’t want to look past anybody, and I think our guys did a good job of that,” Urick said. “Right off the bat, we played hard early on and we were able to get ourselves a fairly comfortable lead.”

In the second half, Urick rested Brancaccio and senior defender Chris Nixon both to protect them from the injury bug that has haunted the Hoyas and to get other players game experience. Senior Eric Reinhardt and sophomores Gerry Reilly and Tucker Stafford took advantage of the opportunity, each scoring his first goal of the season. Comeau, Guy and Dowd also notched second-half tallies as the Hoyas cruised to victory.

Sophomore CT Fisher excelled in goal, making eight saves and giving up only four goals. The sophomore has saved 50.7 percent of shots faced this season and has proven to be a quality backup as starter Jack Davis continues to fight a nagging back injury.

Urick has confidence in his back-up keeper’s ability, and he believes a strong showing like Sunday’s will continue to build the sophomore’s confidence in himself.

“CT’s playing extremely well,” Urick said. “He did some very good things clearing the ball and leading that defense. Some of those saves he made . one or two I thought were pretty special types of saves. It’s good to see, and I think it helps him build some confidence as well.”

The defense also stepped up on man-up opportunities. Before Sunday, the Hoyas’ opponents had scored on 10 of 16 extra-man chances, but Georgetown shut down Providence on all five opportunities. With several younger defenders still adjusting to playing big roles and opponents like Duke and Navy coming up, success on the man-down is a promising sign.

Despite the strong all-around showing, Urick expressed a belief that his team still has a lot of potential to improve.

“We [still] need to shore up our man-down defense,” Urick said. “Our execution on offense sometimes – a little more consistency there I think would be much better.”

Georgetown plays its fifth top-20 opponent of the season Saturday when No. 9 Duke (4-3) visits. All three of the Blue Devils’ losses this year have been to top-15 squads, and they boast one of the nation’s top attacks, led by seniors Max Quinzani (27 goals, four assists) and Ned Crotty (six goals, 22 assists) and junior Zach Howell (18 goals, seven assists).

Georgetown’s young defense will have its hands full against the Blue Devils’ talented trio, and the Hoyas’ offense will likely need another strong outing if Georgetown is to extend its winning streak to three. Opening face-off is slated for noon.”