Charles Nailen/The Hoya Sophomore defender Brodie Merrill hinders the advance of his opponent. The Hoya defense was not enough to hold off the Minutemen attackers.

There are few men’s college lacrosse teams that can claim a great deal of success against the Georgetown Hoyas in recent years. The Massachusetts Minutemen, however, are in that select group of teams.

For the second year in a row, the Minutemen ruined the Hoyas’ perfect season with an 11-8 victory Saturday at Richard Garber Field in Amherst, Mass. Georgetown fell one win short of matching its best start in school history at 9-0. The No. 4 Minutemen improved to 11-1 on the season and 3-1 in ECAC Conference play.

The No. 6 Hoyas were able to bounce back from the opening defeat with a 12-5 victory Wednesday over Mount St. Mary’s at Alumni Field in Emmittsburg, Md. The loss snapped a six game winning streak for the Mount, which fell to 7-7 on the season. The Hoyas improved to 9-1 this far in 2003.

Just as in their 16-13 victory over the Hoyas in 2002, the inutemen jumped out to an early lead Saturday and never trailed at any point. Sophomore attack Gene Tundo opened the scoring for UMass just 37 seconds into the game. Two minutes later, UMass found the net again to make the score 2-0. Junior attackman Neal Goldman got the Hoyas on the scoreboard with a goal at the 10:23 mark of the first quarter, but the Minutemen answered back to take a 3-1 lead after the opening period. UMass controlled the second quarter much as it controlled the first and took a 6-2 lead into the locker room at half time.

The Hoyas rallied in the third quarter and graduate student attackman Phil Vincenti cut the UMass lead to 8-6 with a goal 23 seconds into the final period. Vincenti, Goldman and senior attackman Mike Hammer each scored twice to lead the Hoya offense. Georgetown, however, could never come closer than two goals and UMass pulled away at the end for the victory.

“We didn’t play well enough to win,” Georgetown Head Coach Dave Urick said. “If you point to one thing, out of nine attempts in the second half, we only cleared the ball [out of the defensive zone] three times. It wasn’t anything they were doing that was baffling us. It was just poor execution.”

Strangely, Georgetown held the advantage in most statistical categories. It outshot UMass 48-35 and picked up 40 ground balls to the Minutemen’s 26. Sophomore midfielder Andy Corno was strong again, winning 17 of 22 face-offs.

For the second year in a row though, UMass sophomore goalie Bill Schell was strong in the net, stopping 14 of 22 shots on goal. Georgetown sophomore goalie Rich D’Andrea stopped 11 of 22 UMass shots.

Against Mount St. Mary’s, Georgetown was never seriously threatened. It took a 3-0 lead early and never let the Mount get back into the game. Freshman attackman Keith Schroeder opened the scoring with his first goal as a Hoya at the 12:42 mark of the first quarter. Georetown opened up a 9-2 lead at halftime and increased its lead to 11-2 after three quarter before Mount St. ary’s scored a couple of times in the final quarter. In addition to Schroeder, freshman attackman Sean Denihan also scored his first goal as a Hoya. Junior midfielder Walid Hajj led the Georgetown offense with three goals.

“With our schedule, we’ve had very few opportunities to get some other guys in,” Urick said. “[Wednesday] we got some guys in who really deserved to play.”

It is the loss to UMass though, which will likely have greater ramifications on the Hoyas’ postseason hopes and their possible seeding should they reach the NCAA Tournament. With the win, UMass moved into a first place tie with Georgetown atop the ECAC. Each team has one more conference game left to play. The Hoyas conclude their conference schedule tomorrow when they play host to No. 8 Rutgers at 1 p.m. on Harbin Field. UMass also closes out its conference schedule against Rutgers, when it travels to face the Scarlet Knights on May 3 in Piscataway, N.J.

The Scarlet Knights, who stand at 2-1, a half-game behind both the Minutemen and the Hoyas in ECAC, control their own destiny in the conference. Should they win out, they would guarantee themselves the conference title and the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. UMass would also control its own destiny and would wrap up it second straight conference title with a win over Rutgers on May 3. The Hoyas need help though. To win the conference and receive an automatic bid, they need to defeat the Scarlet Knights tomorrow and hope that the scarlet Knights are able to knock off the Minutemen at home next Saturday.

One element working in all three teams favor this season is that with NCAA Tournament Field has expanded from 12 to 16 teams this season, making at-large bids to the tournament slightly more attainable than in recent years. All three teams, likely will want to cast aside any doubts about their postseason status and wrap up an automatic bid by virtue of winning the conference tournament.

“You always have that little bit of nagging doubt [about receiving an NCAA Tournament bid],” Urick said. “We have some opponents coming up though that give us a golden opportunity to sure up a bid and also a pretty good seed in the tournament.”

The Hoyas are now halfway through a brutal stretch in their schedule that will see them play four games in just nine days. After playing host to the Scarlet Knights tomorrow, they travel to College Park, Md. to face the No. 5 Maryland Terrapins at 7 p.m. at Byrd Stadium. The game was originally scheduled as the season opener on Feb. 22 but was postponed due to unplayable field conditions after a snowstorm.

“Rutgers, I’m very impressed with,” Urick said. “Their win over [No. 7] Syracuse wasn’t a fluke. They outplayed them at the Carrier Dome. By Monday night, we’re going to be going on adrenaline somewhat. But it’s a night game at Byrd Stadium. I think our guys will be up for it.”