Courtesy Peyton Williams/Georgetown Sports Information The Hoyas will look to rebound from a tough start this weekend at Syracuse.

The Georgetown men’s soccer team opened its season in disappointing fashion over the Labor Day weekend as they were outscored 7-1 in two games. The Hoyas finished 0-2 at the D.C. College Cup, losing to The George Washington University 3-1 on Friday and falling to the American University Eagles 4-0 Sunday.

American University, who played host to the D.C. College Cup, won the event by defeating Georgetown on Sunday. The tournament featured Georgetown, American, George Washington and Howard universities. At the outset, Friday’s match looked hopeful for Georgetown. George Washington received a yellow card just 11 seconds into the game. In the eighth minute of play, Georgetown junior midfielder David Eder passed the ball to sophomore midfielder Kevin Sindelar, who netted the Hoyas’ first goal of the season. But it would be the last Georgetown goal of the tournament.

Despite maintaining possession for most of the remainder of the first half, the Hoyas were unable to score again. Nor were they able to stop George Washington from scoring. As the first half came to a close, George Washington drove in a long shot to tie the contest at one goal apiece going into the break.

In the 80th minute, George Washington again netted a goal to go up 2-1. Despite holding a 12-8 shooting advantage in the second half, Georgetown was not able to capitalize. George Washington finished the game with another tally off a penalty kick. Senior goalkeeper Brian O’Hagan had only one save on the day, while allowing all three goals.

Defense was the name of Sunday’s game for the Hoyas. The Eagles controlled possession almost throughout the game. Junior goalkeeper Tim Hogan guarded the net for the Hoyas and made five stops. Hogan also allowed four goals in the match, however.

“We’ve got two good keepers, and Brian played on Friday. We thought `here’s two games in three days, let’s make sure Timmy gets his feet wet, so to speak, and let them battle it out,'” Head Coach Keith Tabatznik said.

American took the lead in the 13th minute of play, finding the back of the net for the first time of the day. The Eagles found the net again during the 32nd minute of play to go up 2-0. The Hoyas were at the losing end of a 13-3 shooting difference during the first half.

During the second half the Hoyas were able to hold the Eagles to only four shots but were unable to stop two of them from reaching the back of the net.

“American University played a great game,” Tabatznik said. “They beat us in every single part of the game. They played well, they’re an experienced team and we weren’t going on all cylinders, so we were on our heels the whole time. They took it to us.” The game was followed by a ceremony awarding the D.C. College Cup to AU and the announcement of the All-Tournament team. Georgetown sophomore defender Dan Gargan and freshman defender Jeff Curtin garnered tournament honors.

The Hoyas next take on Big East foe Syracuse this Saturday in Syracuse, N.Y. Both the Hoyas and the Orangemen come into the game with a record of 0-2-0 so far this season.

“There were a lot of lessons that came out of this weekend and one of the biggest keys for us is that we’re a young team and the learning curve is real short, so if we can learn from these things this team is going to get better and better and better,” Tabatznik said. “Hopefully, we’ll get rewarded for it. We have a whole week to get ready for Syracuse; I think we’ll be okay.”