Ruthie Braunstein/The Hoya Sarah Oglesby and the Hoyas won 18-6 Saturday. It wasn’t a familiar face in goal for the Hoyas, but it was a familiar result on the scoreboard as No. 2 Georgetown destroyed Syracuse 18-6 on Saturday without the services of All-American goalie Bowen Holden.

The Hoyas (5-0, 1-0 Big East) pulled way from the Orangewomen in the second half, finishing the game on an 11-1 run. The Georgetown attack was relentless against the fatigued Syracuse defense, while junior goalie Chandler Vicchio settled in and came up with a number of impressive saves in her first collegiate start.

“I was a little nervous coming in,” Vicchio said about her first victory as a Hoya. “But at the same time I’ve been playing with probably the best attackers in the nation for two-and-a-half years.”

After Syracuse did a decent job containing those attackers in the first half, exploded in the second half, scoring 10 goals in the span of 20 minutes. The barrage was capped by a pair of unassisted goals from All-American senior Sheehan Stanwick, who simply beat the Syracuse defenders in one-on-one situations while racking up five goals on the afternoon.

Syracuse, which gave Georgetown a close game in the Hoyas’ 11-10 victory in last year’s NCAA tournament, matched Georgetown goal for goal until midway through the first half on Saturday.

With the game tied at two and the Orangewomen doing an exceptional job of stifling the Hoyas’ attack, Georgetown exploded and went on a 5-0 run over the next 10 minutes to take a 7-2 lead. All-American Erin Elbe anchored the run, scoring two of her four goals on the day in a five-minute span. However the gritty Syracuse squad was not yet ready to concede defeat.

Facing a five-goal deficit with only 2:30 remaining in the first period, the Orangewomen scored a pair of goals to cut the Hoyas’ halftime lead to just 7-4 and left the game very much in doubt. Syracuse continued to build momentum with a goal just over a minute into the second half, cutting Georgetown’s lead to 7-5.

The crowd didn’t have long to wait for the Hoyas to secure the win, as Georgetown rallied with its second five-goal run, putting the game away midway through the second period by the time Syracuse scored another goal. The rout was on, and by the time the scoring had finished, the scoreboard read 18-6, and the Orangewomen had fallen to yet another top team.

Syracuse, ranked No. 10 prior to facing Georgetown, is a team better than its 0-4 record indicates. The Orangewomen are victims of a schedule that has pitted them against four top 10 teams, including three of the top four teams in the nation (Maryland, Georgetown, Duke). Against No. 1 Maryland, the Orange stayed close throughout much of the game, eventually losing 11-7.

Against Georgetown, Syracuse simply ran out of steam early in the second half and faded as the Hoyas took the game over with their superior speed, depth and stickhandling skills. It didn’t hurt that Vicchio put forth a performance in goal that coach Simons described as “astonishing,” as she recorded 11 saves while only giving up six goals in place of Holden, who is day-to-day.

“Every day in practice I’m playing against the top players, so I just had to keep that in my mind,” Vicchio said, “it’s unbelievably bittersweet because Bowen is without a doubt one of my best friends on the team. To know that my first start comes at the expense of my best friend on the team is rough. I owed it to her to play well.”

Solid defense in front of Vicchio didn’t hurt, as Syracuse managed a number of fast breaks but struggled when the Hoyas slowed the pace. The Orangewomen were unable to get good looks at the net from their offensive sets

“I thought our players played great team defense,” Simons said. “Gussie [Haybeck], Caitlin [McLean] and Reagan [Raneri] I thought were tremendous.”

Georgetown has off until Saturday, when the Hoyas will play host to the No. 4 Duke Blue Devils on Kehoe Field at noon. Duke, which is 4-1 on the season, defeated Georgetown 13-9 last season in Durham, N.C.