After dropping its season opener last weekend, the Georgetown men’s lacrosse team (0-1) will return to the Hilltop Saturday to play its first home game of the season when it hosts No. 16 Towson (1-1).

Georgetown will look to shake off its loss to No. 2 Notre Dame (1-0) from Feb. 14, a game in which the Hoyas battled against the Fighting Irish in a closely contested matchup. The Irish ultimately came out on top, winning 14-12.

Losing to Notre Dame by a two-goal margin is no small feat; given the challenges of playing on the road and containing several prolific offensive threats on a deep and talented Notre Dame squad, Georgetown performed valiantly.

However, the Hoyas were not content with the loss.

“I thought we did a pretty good job,” Head Coach Kevin Warne said. “At the end of the day, we didn’t win the game — I’ve never been a guy about moral victories — but our guys were prepared, and I though they tried to execute the game plan as well as they could.”

Georgetown was the first to strike in the game, as senior attack Bo Stafford recorded a goal with 13:06 left in the first period. The goal was the first of four goals that Stafford scored during the contest.

However, Notre Dame controlled the rest of the period, leaving Georgetown on the short end of a 4-1 score toward the end of the first quarter. Georgetown freshman attack Stephen Quinzi scored in the last minute of the period to end the run and notch his first collegiate goal.

Sophomore attack Peter Conley added another Georgetown goal early in the second quarter, closing Notre Dame’s lead to one goal. The teams traded goals throughout the end of the period, and Fighting Irish junior attack Matt Kavanagh scored with four seconds remaining to give his team an 8-6 advantage at the end of the half.

In the third period, after a Stafford goal, Notre Dame scored two consecutive goals to extend its lead to 10-7. However, Georgetown sophomore midfielder Devon Lewis, Quinzi and senior midfielder William Flatley each added goals to make the score 11-10 heading into the final period.

In the first minute of play, Georgetown converted on a man-up opportunity when freshman attack Matthew Behrens scored a goal to tie the game at 11. Two Notre Dame goals extended its lead to two, but a goal from Georgetown senior attack and co-captain Reilly O’Connor off of an assist from Quinzi brought Georgetown within one goal with 9:40 left in the game.

Georgetown had many offensive opportunities during the remainder of regulation — it took seven more shots after its last goal — but did not capitalize. A goal from Fighting Irish freshman attack Mikey Wynne in the final minute of the game cemented Notre Dame’s 14-12 victory.

Despite the final score of the game, the Hoyas showed poise on both ends of the field. Georgetown’s defense held Notre Dame’s Kavanagh to just one goal and two assists; Kavanagh was a 2015 preseason All-American pick, and he led the Fighting Irish offense during the 2014 season with 42 goals and 33 assists.

The Hoyas utilized their depth on offense; Quinzi’s two goals and two assists indicate his potential for a strong freshman season, and Stafford’s four goals marked a new career-high.

Stafford attributes the success to Georgetown’s balanced style of play.

“We’ve been playing very unselfishly, and I was fortunate enough to benefit off of two great passes from my teammates,” Stafford said. “So going forward, we’re going to keep playing unselfishly, and we should be able to score with any guy on the field.”

As Georgetown prepares for Towson, Warne says that his team is keeping its focus on making day-by-day progress.

“We just need to focus on the next drill, the next rep,” Warne said. “Whether you’re going over an opponent’s offense or refining our skills on our offense or our defense, whatever it may be, we need to get better every day, and then we’ll be in good shape.”

Towson, a member of the Colonial Athletic Conference, has already turned some heads in the first few weeks of its season; a 6-5 upset against then-No. 5 Johns Hopkins (2-1, 0-0 Big 10) in its season opener propelled Towson to a national ranking.

Although Towson dropped its second game Wednesday to No. 8 Loyola (2-1, 0-0 Patriot League), Warne knows it will be a tough competitor. Georgetown fell to Towson last season in a close 8-7 loss.

Overall, however, he is looking forward to the matchup.

“We lost a tough one last year to them,” Warne said. “But we understand that our team is totally different, and I like the way we’re doing things in practice this week, and I’m really excited to play on Saturday … and see if we can take what we learned from week one and apply it to week two. And if we can do that, I’ll be really excited.”