The ball glanced off the top of the Georgetown goalkeeper’s hand and into the side of the goal, setting off a celebration in the corner of the field.

The Hoyas could only look on as American University handed the Georgetown men’s soccer team its first loss and wrenched back the D.C. College Cup with a 2-1 overtime win in the final game of the tournament.

Georgetown won the D.C. College Cup, an early season matchup of four local universities, last year at home with a win over Howard and a draw with American. Georgetown looked to defend its title Saturday on Reeves Field at American with a sound 1-0 victory over George Washington.

“I think our start to the game [was good]. I think in both the scrimmage and the Delaware game we didn’t have a good start,” Head Coach Keith Tabatznik said. “We felt pretty good. For 25 or 30 minutes, right up until the first goal we were in control.”

The Hoyas held the edge over the Colonials throughout the match, outshooting their opponents 9-8. The only goal of the game came in the 33rd minute after a Georgetown drive led to a corner kick. After junior midfielder Danny McAnally’s kick found senior midfielder Dan Gargan’s head, Gargan nudged the ball toward junior defender Jeff Curtin, who slammed the ball into the top left corner for the score.

With American’s 2-0 win over Howard later that day, the showdown for the championship came down between these two teams.

Georgetown’s problems with ball possession and passing plagued them throughout the tight struggle with American. The Hoyas still managed to take the lead with the only goal of the first half, an unassisted shot that freshman forward Daniel Grasso steadied and booted into the back of the net in the 31st minute.

American came back after the half as the stronger side and quickly tied the score in the 51st minute when senior midfielder Shawn Kuykendall fed sophomore midfielder Nigel White with a corner kick that White headed past the goalkeeper. Both sides had chances throughout the second half that were either stopped by the goalkeepers or just grazed the pipes.

The Eagles sealed the victory after a penalty gave them a free kick outside the box. Sophomore forward Sal Caccavale hooked his shot around the Hoya defenders and just past diving sophomore goalkeeper Andrew Keszler. While American players jumped off the bench to join their teammates and fans on the other side of the field, the Georgetown players left the field sulking.

“I don’t know if you take a positive from this. You take things you need to work on,” Tabatznik said. “It’s a game where I thought we were slightly a better team and we didn’t play better and as the game went on, instead of getting better we allowed [American] to get better.”

Georgetown failed to maintain the quality of play that brought it a win against George Washington two days earlier. American controlled much of the game, outshooting Georgetown 16-9. The Hoyas struggled to get balls back, often giving the Eagles more chances, as American’s 14-3 edge on corner kicks showed.

“We had our chance to win the game – we didn’t take it well. We gave them too many chances,” Tabatznik said.

Georgetown drops to 2-1-0 after the weekend, and will need to step up its game in order to challenge the tough competition that lies ahead. Today the Hoyas will take on Penn State’s Nittany Lions, No. 14 in the latest NSCAA/Adidas Poll, at 5 p.m. in the first match of the University of Maryland Tournament. Georgetown will take on the host, No. 3 Maryland, in a matchup at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday.

For Tabatznik, success for the Hoyas comes down to staying in position and controlling play.

“Everyone on the field in each position needs to understand what they have to do . that’s a big thing,” he said. “If we don’t stretch our field against these teams, we’ll be defending the whole time. The most important thing is to find a way to keep possession of the ball.”