Charles Nailen/The Hoya Sophomore midfielder Andy Corno extends for the ball. He had a career performance, winning 13 of 21 faceoffs in Georgetown’s 14-5 victory over Loyola Saturday.

They finally got an easy one.

After three straight one-goal victories, the No. 3 Georgetown men’s lacrosse team did it the painless way, playing at the top of its game from the opening face off to the final buzzer and coming away with a 14-5 victory over No. 16 Loyola Saturday before a crowd of 1,603 at a sun-drenched Harbin Field.

“It was the best effort we got all around this season,” senior co-captain and long stick midfielder Kyle Sweeney said. “[Head Coach Dave Urick] said we had to respond and we did.”

It was Georgetown’s second straight victory over the Greyhounds after losing 20 straight times to the traditionally strong program. Saturday’s win was similar to last year’s 15-6 Hoya victory in Baltimore. Both times, the Hoyas were dominant in virtually every facet of the game.

“It was a pleasant surprise,” Urick said. “We beat a pretty good lacrosse team today. We need to be able to pull away from teams if we’re going to compete at the end of the season.”

For the second week in a row, Georgetown received a balanced scoring effort. Seven different players scored, with junior attackman Neal Goldman, senior midfielder Trevor Walker and senior attackman Jordan Vettoretti contributing three apiece. The 14 goals were Georgetown’s best offensive output this season.

Going up against one of the nation’s best face off men in Loyola senior midfielder Ryan Radonis, Georgetown sophomore midfielder Andy Corno had one of his best games this season, winning 13 of 21 draws and helping set the tone for Georgetown’s dominance throughout the game. For the game, Georgetown outshot Loyola 46-22, including 17-5 in the third quarter when the Hoyas broke the game open. They picked up 41 groundballs compared to 25 for the Greyhounds. Sweeney picked up four, which gave him 224 for his career, tying for first all-time in the history of Georgetown lacrosse with current Georgetown Assistant Coach Scott Urick (COL ’00).

“The last few weeks he’s been the Kyle Sweeney everyone’s come to appreciate,” Urick said.

Loyola was never able to mount any sustained offensive push against the experienced Georgetown defense. Only 11 of its 22 shots were on goal. Sophomore goalie Rich D’Andrea did not see much action and was replaced by junior goalie Andrew Owen with 8:46 remaining in the fourth quarter with Georgetown leading 13-4 and firmly in control.

“It was nice to breathe and see some of our younger guys get out there,” Sweeney said.

After the game, Loyola Head Coach Bill Dirrigl expressed how outmatched he thought his offense was against the Hoya defense.

“They were allowed to bully us,” he said. “It’s tough to score when they’re bullying us all over the field.”

Georgetown opened with two goals in the first five minutes. Less than two and a half minutes into the game Junior midfielder Walid Hajj found Goldman who dumped the ball into the net for the opening goal. Sophomore midfielder Nick Miaritis scored minutes later to give the Hoyas a two-goal lead.

After taking a 3-0 lead, Loyola made its sole charge of the day, cutting the lead to 3-2 on a goal by junior attackman Stephen Brundage. But that was as close as the Greyhounds would get all afternoon. Georgetown increased its lead to 7-3 by halftime on the heels of two goals from Vettoretti.

In the first minutes of the third quarter, Georgetown put the game away for good. In a two-minute span early in the third, Walker, Vettoretti and Goldman all scored to give Georgetown a 10-3 lead. The lead jumped to 12-3 before Loyola finally broke the Georgetown run late in the third quarter, but they were too far behind to ever seriously threaten the Georgetown lead.

Georgetown faces one of its biggest tests of the season when it travels to Amherst, Mass. to meet its ECAC Conference rival, No. 6 assachusetts. The Hoyas will be looking for some revenge as the inutemen’s 16-13 victory last year at Harbin Field cost Georgetown its third straight ECAC Conference title.

Faceoff is set for 1 p.m.