It was almost as if the referee had been following Georgetown all season, as if the script for Wednesday night’s game was written according to how the rest of the season had played out.

In the 57th minute, with the game tied 0-0 and the Hoyas’ postseason hopes on the line against Pittsburgh, Georgetown senior forward and co-captain Ricky Schramm scored what appeared to be the goal that would carry the Hoyas to victory.

But the timely goal would not have been fitting for Georgetown – not this season. The referee held up the offside flag, and the goal was taken away. Twenty-eight minutes later, Pittsburgh freshman midfielder Mike McDade scored his first career goal to give the Panthers (5-9-2, 4-4-1) the 1-0 win and a berth in the Big East tournament.

Georgetown (5-11-0, 2-8-0) will finish Georgetown (5-11-0, 2-8-0) will finish seventh out of eight teams in the Big East Blue Division and will not qualify for the Big East tournament for the first time since 2003.

“The disappointment is that we played well, we played hard,” Head Coach Brian Wiese said. “But we just didn’t get the goal to win. It’s been the story of the season. It just breaks my heart for the seniors, who won’t get a chance to play for the postseason in their last game.”

The game was played on the slick grass of Pittsburgh’s Founders Field, and after a scoreless first half, Georgetown controlled the ball and created a number of scoring opportunities early in the second period.

“We had a 15 minute spell to open the second half that was one-way traffic,” Wiese said. “We had chance after chance but we didn’t take any of them.”

Schramm’s offside penalty came on a cross from sophomore midfielder Hunter Joslin. Schramm gathered the ball and fired it just inside the near post, but then the offside flag went up.

“I haven’t seen the tape of the game yet, but I wouldn’t say that I was offsides,” Schramm said. “That play would have made all the difference. Emotionally, we would have been able to close the door on them, and it would have totally changed our defensive strategy. It would have made a huge difference, but that’s the way the ball rolled.”

After reviewing the tape of the game, Wiese said that he disagreed with the call but did not claim that it determined the outcome of the game.

“There were so many opportunities for us to win the game,” Wiese said. “You can never blame the referee really. You always have to look at your team and your performance. There’s 90 minutes of soccer around that play.”

With 4:25 left in regulation time, Pittsburgh senior midfielder Tyler Bastianelli passed the ball to McDade, who let loose a one-time shot from 30 yards out that found the back of the net, just beneath the crossbar.

“It was one of those shots that most of the time ends up in the parking lot, but [McDade] hit it just right and it just slipped right past my fingertips,” senior goalkeeper Andrew Keszler said.

“[McDade] hit an absolute cannon of a shot,” Wiese said. “We lost game after game this year with guys scoring their best goal of the season against us.”

Junior forward Mike Glaccum said that he was proud of the Hoyas’ performance, despite the disappointing outcome.

“As a team, we put forth a great effort,” Glaccum said. “We needed this game, and I thought we played really hard. I thought we deserved to win and probably should have won, but the balls didn’t bounce in our favor.”

Pittsburgh outshot Georgetown 13-10, but the Hoyas had a 6-0 advantage in corner kicks. Pittsburgh took six shots on goal, while Georgetown managed five.

“Overall, I thought we did pretty well defensively,” Keszler said. “We handled the game really well, and we were so close to holding them scoreless for two halves. We just had some unlucky things not go our way, and that’s kind of the way it’s been all year.”

The Hoyas will finish their season with a game against Marquette on Saturday at 1 p.m. on North Kehoe.

“Sending the seniors off on a winning note will be very important for us,” Wiese said.