Just two games into conference play, Georgetown (2-3, 0-2 ECAC), which was predicted in the preseason to win the ECAC, has found itself at the bottom of the league standings. Playing their fourth road game of the season, the Hoyas came out sluggish and couldn’t recover as Hobart (5-0, 1-0) rolled to a 15-8 victory. Hobart, who just last season considered dropping Division 1 lacrosse, improved upon its perfect record.

Just as was the case two weeks ago at St. John’s, the Hoyas fell behind early, surrendering four goals in the first quarter of play, including two to Hobart sophomore attack Kevin Curtin.

“It was similar in some respects [to St. John’s],” Georgetown Head Coach Dave Urick said in a phone interview. “There wasn’t one point in the first half where we felt good.We played as poor as I’ve seen in a long time.”

The first quarter was marked by seven Georgetown turnovers, sloppy clears (3-of-6) and a poor performance at the X, where the Hoyas won just one of the five faceoffs in the period.

While the Hoyas began to have success at the X in the second quarter, winning all four faceoffs, and started converting their clears, the Statesmen kept adding to their advantage.

After increasing the lead to 5-0, a pushing penalty on freshman midfielder Zach Angel led to a goal by Hobart junior attack Jeff Colburn on the subsequent extra-man opportunity. The Statesmen added one more with 1:56 left in the half to take a 7-0 lead heading into the intermission.

The Hoya attack was able to put pressure on Hobart’s defense in the second quarter, but sophomore goalkeeper Max Silberlicht repeatedly turned away Georgetown chances. Silberlicht had six saves in the second quarter and 10 for the half. Like last Saturday when Syracuse turned away 18 of Georgetown’s 23 shots on goal, a combination of good play in the cage and poor shooting by Georgetown kept the Hoyas off the scoreboard.

“[Silberlicht] played well,” Urick said. “Our shot selection could’ve been better – we shot a few at his feet.”

Georgetown senior midfielder Michael Shotwell won the opening faceoff of the second half – one of his 11 wins at the X for the Hoyas – and 20 seconds later junior midfielder Andrew Brancaccio got the Hoyas on the board with his seventh goal of the season.

Three Georgetown turnovers and seven minutes later, Hobart edged the difference back to seven with a goal by sophomore midfielder Mike Lazore. A quick response by junior midfielder Scott Kocis made the score 8-2, but the Hoyas would never get any closer. With Georgetown looking like it might work its way back into the game, the Statesman took command, going on a 5-0 run to end the quarter.

The Hoyas won 7-of-8 faceoffs in the quarter and 17-of-26 for the game, but turnovers stopped them from setting up offensive sets.

“Looking at the statistics, we we’re pretty good on faceoffs actually,” Urick said. “Unfortunately, we kept turning it over after winning faceoffs even though we had controlled the ball.”

Down 13-2, the Hoyas could do nothing more than trade goals for most of the fourth period. Redshirt sophomore attack Ricky Mirabito, who leads the Hoyas with 12 goals, recorded all three of his goals in the fourth period and Brancaccio added his second, but it was too little too late as the final seconds ticked away for the Statesmen’s 15-8 victory.

With two losses in conference, the Hoyas’ margin for error to make the NCAA tournament is getting smaller by the minute. Now the Hoyas have a week to prepare before traveling to No. 9 Duke next Saturday at 1 p.m.

“We need to focus now and get ready for a real good team in another road game,” Urick said.

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