The Georgetown men’s lacrosse team (0-1) stumbled out of the gate last Friday night, losing its season opener to No. 7 Maryland (2-0), 16-11, at MultiSport Facility.

The Terrapins got off to a quick start on a drizzly evening with senior midfielder Joe Cummings scoring two goals in less than 40 seconds to give Maryland a 2-0 advantage.

Georgetown junior attack Jason McFadden had a solid unassisted goal to cut the lead in half, but Maryland answered with four straight goals, including two to open the second period.

Facing a potent Maryland offense, the Blue and Gray were ultimately unable to do enough in the other facets of the game to make up for their offensive disadvantage. Overall, the Terps and Hoyas were even with 15 faceoff wins apiece, while Maryland collected 33 ground balls to Georgetown’s 29.

“We knew going into the game [Maryland’s] faceoff kid was excellent. He’s obviously one of the best. We knew that was going to be a big part of the game,” Head Coach Dave Urick said. “We had our chances. But the 50/50 grounders in the first half — we weren’t that good at it. We maybe got a little better in spots, but that needs to get a whole lot better.”

Georgetown hit a groove as the clock wound down toward halftime, with junior midfielder Brian Casey scoring two goals and assisting senior midfielder Zack Angel on a third.

But if the Blue and Gray had momentum coming out of the intermission, Maryland’s Cummings quickly put a stop to it. His goal, one of two quick Maryland strikes to open the second half, stretched theTerps’ lead to 9-4 and put the momentum squarely back on the visitors’ side.

Two other Maryland players chipped in to score during the third quarter, while Georgetown could manage only one goal — scored by senior attack C-Jay Engelke — in a period that was markedly different from the game’s second quarter.

“You’re playing a lot of defense [and] guys are getting a little bit tired on that end. And then maybe you get a lot impatient on offense and the snowball keeps getting bigger and bigger and keeps rolling down the hill,” Urick said.

It went from bad to worse for the Blue and Gray in the fourth quarter, as the Terrapins scored five goals in a row to stretch their lead out to 11 and put a rivalry victory out of reach for Georgetown for the third straight year.

The game’s final minutes saw a flurry of Georgetown goals, but it was a classic case of too little, too late for the hosts. Six different Hoyas scored during the garbage-time outburst — Angel, Engelke, Casey, senior midfielder Francis McDonough, redshirt sophomore defender Tyler Knarr and sophomore midfielder John Wujciak.

That impressive, albeit ultimately futile, close to the game should provide the Hoyas with some encouragement going forward. But Georgetown, which boasts one of the nation’s toughest schedules once again, will need to elevate its game to get past rivals such as Harvard, Duke, Syracuse and Notre Dame.

“We’ve got some work to do. It’s a work in progress. We knew they’re a very good team, a team that played for a national championship last season,” Urick said. “We’ve got to take a long hard look at what we did and build off the things we did well and make sure we correct the things that weren’t so good.”

The Hoyas will take to the field next on March 3, when they take on Detroit Mercy at MultiSportFacility. Faceoff is set for 1 p.m.