The No. 3 Georgetown men’s soccer team (7-2-4, 2-1-1 Big East) has battled the elements as much as its opponents this season. Wednesday’s surprising home-defeat against Providence College (7-2-1, 2-0-1 Big East) was no different. Inclement, rainy weather that was predicted to begin at the game’s original 3 p.m. start time forced the teams to shift to a highly unorthodox 10 a.m. kickoff at Shaw Field.

With storm clouds looming, the game began in front of a mere handful of spectators. Just two minutes later, Georgetown trailed Providence 1-0 behind a second-effort goal from sophomore forward Mac Steeves. The Hoyas would not overcome the deficit. Despite the unusual morning start, the weather was hot and humid for much of the match. The Hoyas clearly were affected by the conditions, especially early in the match.

“Suddenly we are playing at 10 a.m. and we do not have any fans. We just rolled out of bed, and we are playing a game,” Head Coach Brian Wiese said. “It makes it tough when you take away what Shaw Field is. It felt like more of a scrimmage.”

Georgetown conceded its earliest goal of the season to Providence, falling into an early hole that it could not climb out of. Junior defender and captain Keegan Rosenberry slipped and fell, leaving Providence’s sophomore midfielder Dominik Machado open to cross the ball into the box. Senior goalkeeper and captain Tomas Gomez made the first save, but Steeves buried the rebound to put the Friars ahead less than 90 seconds into the match.

Steeves doubled his team’s lead in the 38th minute after Georgetown could not slow down Providence’s breakaway opportunity. Steeves found himself one-on-one with Gomez and calmly converted the chance.

“They just took advantage of their chances,” Gomez said. “It is frustrating. You are down 1-0 two minutes in and you are like, ‘What just happened?’”

Georgetown began to push for goals in the second half in an attempt to overcome the 2-0 score. Despite their increased sense of urgency, the Hoyas could not produce many meaningful chances. In fact, the team’s best scoring opportunities came from corner kicks in the 12th and 15th minutes, when junior defender Josh Turnley first hit the crossbar and then forced a quick save from Providence’s senior goalkeeper Keasel Broome. Nevertheless, Gomez was happy to see his team press on in the second half.

“The fact that we had the urgency through the final seconds is a good thing. Sometimes this is how it happens. Sometimes you go down 2-0, and we in the past have been capable of scoring three goals. It was just not our day today,” Gomez said.

Georgetown’s best plays of the afternoon came from set pieces, especially corner kicks. The Hoyas had 13 corner kicks compared to the Friars’ one, but they were unable to convert any of them. In fact, the team has not scored on any of its 90 corner kicks this season, a number that is more than double the amount it has conceded.

“This one glaring stat that continues to stare us in the face is this corner-kick thing. [We are] zero for a lot. We lead the Big East in corners by a wide margin. We generate a lot of corners, and we are not getting anything out of that. It is something we have to fix,” Wiese said.

Overall, Georgetown will be disappointed in its performance against unranked Providence. Neither the defense nor offense played near its potential Wednesday, and the entire team lacked the sharpness and decisiveness on the ball that usually makes the Hoyas such a formidable team.

“It was pretty comfortably the flattest performance we have had in the year,” Wiese said. “It was a Wednesday at 10 a.m., and you are wondering, ‘Are we going to get the game in, will there be lightening or a deluge of rain?’ You are thinking about all these things … and you are down after two minutes.”

The Hoyas will look to get back on track Saturday when they travel north to face the Seton Hall Pirates (3-6-3, 0-3-1 Big East). Kickoff is in South Orange, N.J., at 1 p.m.