The Hoyas came home for the holiday break to meet an undefeated Blue Devils’ squad eager to end a four-game losing streak against its Washington, D.C. opponent.

For the Georgetown men’s lacrosse team, the result was reminiscent of a lopsided season-opening loss to Maryland. Duke took Georgetown as its ninth victim of the 2005 campaign, giving the Hoyas a 12-3 drubbing Saturday afternoon on North Kehoe Field.

“It was as complete a lacrosse game as we’ve played in a long time,” Duke Head Coach Mike Pressler said, attributing the win to his team’s “smothering defense.”

Georgetown (4-2, 2-0 ECAC) had offensive opportunities early in the contest but the Duke defensive unit, led by junior David Evans and sophomores Casey Carroll and Tony McDevitt, prevented the Hoyas from getting good looks at the net.

“We didn’t really do a lot to challenge their goalie with well-placed shots,” Georgetown Head Coach Dave Urick said.

Duke senior Aaron Fenton had 13 saves on the afternoon, failing to stop just two of the Hoyas’ 15 shots on goal.

At the opposite end of the field, junior attack Dan Flannery tallied a game-high five goals for the Blue Devils as freshman attack Zack Greer contributed three more. Georgetown struggled to find an answer for Duke’s two leading scorers, though Hoya senior goalie Rich D’Andrea recorded several key saves to prevent the Blue Devils from earning a double-digit win.

Duke opened the contest with a 5-0 run, immediately setting then-No. 5 Georgetown back on its heels. Senior Andy Corno, who has been plagued with a groin injury for the past two weeks, was largely ineffective in the first half, winning just three of 10 faceoff opportunities.

Urick said he had not expected Corno, who did not practice much last week, to start Saturday’s contest.

“I don’t think Andy has hit his stride yet,” he added. “He still gets a little bit jumpy out there with the whistle,” alluding to several false starts on first-half faceoffs.

Georgetown only mustered one goal in the first 30 minutes, when junior attack Sean Denihan beat McDevitt on an inbound for an unassisted score with 6:57 to play in the second quarter.

The Georgetown defense, unsettled after Corno’s second false-start call of the afternoon, allowed Greer to score just eight seconds later off a rebound. Duke added another goal just before halftime when sophomore defenseman Nick O’Hara took the ball the length of the field and fired past D’Andrea to give his team a 7-1 advantage.

Sophomore attack Trevor Casey earned the Hoyas’ second goal of the day 50 seconds into the second half, putting a feed from Denihan into the back of the net.

Fenton held Georgetown scoreless for the rest of the afternoon, though he left the game with 4:21 to play. His replacement, sophomore goalie Dan Loftus, allowed the Hoyas’ third goal while making one save.

A bright note for Georgetown came early in the fourth quarter, when the Hoyas managed to play through a two-man disadvantage. Junior defenseman Robert Smith was tabbed with a two-minute unreleasable for unsportsmanlike conduct after blindsiding Duke sophomore midfielder Michael Ward. Shortly thereafter junior defenseman Reyn Garnett also went to the box for a one-minute slashing call. Georgetown managed a clear and ran the time off the clock.

The Blue Devils also added five more goals in the second half, crushing all hopes of a Hoya comeback similar to the ones against Delaware and Hobart in the last two weeks.

“We’re kind of at a crossroads now,” senior defenseman Brodie Merrill said. “We can go forward or let [this loss] affect us.”

Georgetown plays host to No. 6 Navy Saturday at 1 p.m. on North Kehoe Field. The Midshipmen are 7-1 (4-1 Patriot) on the year but have yet to face a top 10 opponent.

The Naval Academy handed the Hoyas a 7-5 loss last year. Rain forced the teams to play on Kehoe Field, where the Midshipmen won what was mostly a defensive battle. Navy goalie Matt Russell had 14 saves in the contest. D’Andrea tallied seven.

Duke (9-0, 2-0 ACC) climbed from No. 3 to No. 2 in the polls with the victory, tying school records for consecutive victories and most victories to start a season, both set in 1999. That year, Duke defeated Georgetown 10-8 for their seventh straight win but lost to the Hoyas 17-14 in the NCAA quarterfinals.

The Blue Devils will face their greatest challenge of the year when they visit No. 1 Johns Hopkins (5-0) – the only other undefeated team in the country – on Saturday, April 9.