The Hoyas knew this would be a tough week. Playing three lacrosse games in seven days is never easy, especially when two of them are against teams ranked among the top 15 in the country.

So far, No. 7 Georgetown (3-1) has met mixed results. Last Saturday, the Hoyas fell at home to then-No. 12 Syracuse (2-2) 14-9, but they rebounded with a 9-8 road victory over No. 14 Delaware (5-2) on Wednesday. They will wrap up one of the most difficult stretches of their season with a 1 p.m. game at Hobart tomorrow.

Georgetown had plenty of scoring opportunities against Syracuse but struggled to get the ball past sophomore goalie Peter Coluccini, who made a season-high 15 saves for the Orange.

“We took some shots we wanted to get,” junior attacker Brendan Cannon said. “We hit some pipes but just didn’t have enough in the end.”

Cannon, who had five shots on goal in the game, scored twice and tallied one assist in the Hoyas’ losing effort. Sophomore attacker Jake Samperton also had two goals and an assist. Five other Georgetown players – freshman midfielder Scott Kocis, junior attacker Andrew Baird, senior midfielder Garrett Wilson, freshman attacker Andrew Brancaccio and junior midfielder Dan D’Agnes – each found the back of the net once.

Junior midfielder Steven Brooks scored four goals and sophomore attacker Dan Hardy added three goals and an assist to lead the Orange.

Syracuse took a 5-2 lead in the first quarter and did not look back. The Orange led 10-5 at halftime and then 12-7 going into the fourth quarter. D’Agnes and Samperton scored back-to-back goals to bring the score to 12-9 with 5:35 remaining, but Syracuse scored the final two goals of the contest.

Georgetown junior goalkeeper Miles Kass, who made nine saves in the game, said that the Hoyas were simply outplayed.

“The better team won today,” Kass said after the game.

But Georgetown was the better team against Delaware on Wednesday. Brancaccio scored the game winner with 4:38 remaining to give the Hoyas an impressive road victory over the Fighting Blue Hens.

“We did enough to win the game,” Head Coach Dave Urick said. “We didn’t overwhelm them by any means, but we’ll take it.”

Brancaccio’s clutch score was his second of the game and eighth this season. He is tied with Baird, who scored three times against Delaware, for the team lead in goals.

Freshman attacker Craig Dowd also scored two goals for the Hoyas and Cannon added a goal and three assists, bringing his team-leading point total to 13.

Delaware senior midfielder Alex Smith won 14 of 19 face-offs, upping his career total to 846, and became the all-time NCAA Division I leader in face-off wins. He has won 81.2 percent of his face-offs this season. Smith’s dominance on face-offs made it difficult for Georgetown to take control of the game.

“We really had an uphill battle because they had possession of the ball a fair amount of the time,” Urick said.

Urick said that the Hoyas’ defensive performance, in particular the strong play of Kass, allowed Georgetown to escape with the win.

“We’re still not where we want to be offensively,” Urick said. “Defensively, I thought we played very well. If there was a difference in the game it might have been Miles Kass in goal. He was on top of his game and played very well. He made some big saves when we needed them the most.”

The Hoyas will look to improve their play on the offensive end when they take on Hobart Tomorrow. The opening face-off is set for 1 p.m. at Boswell Field in Geneva, N.Y.