Despite holding its opponent to only one goal in the second half, the Georgetown men’s lacrosse team (0-2) dropped its first home game of the season to No. 16 Towson (2-1) in a 9-6 contest on Sunday. A hot start from the Tigers proved to be fatal for the Hoyas, who struggled to generate offense in the first half of the game.

Towson displayed athleticism and a sense of urgency from the opening faceoff.

The Tigers scrapped for ground balls and played to their strengths on offense, ultimately dominating possession through the first half. Towson’s largest lead came early in the second quarter when it was up 7-0.

Redshirt senior midfielder Andrew Hodgson started Towson’s offensive momentum when he scored the first goal just over two minutes into the game. Hodgson’s goal triggered an unanswered Towson streak that would last through the next 18 minutes of the game.

The Hoyas’ inability to control the pace early in the game proved to have serious consequences. Given that Georgetown also struggled in the beginning of last week’s matchup against No. 2 Notre Dame (2-0), Head Coach Kevin Warne wants his team to work on establishing early momentum.

“This is two games in a row where we’ve come out in the first quarter, down 4-1 last week and 6-0 this week,” Warne said. “So we’re going to have to change some things to get a quicker start.”

Georgetown finally earned its first offensive possession five minutes into the game, but it struggled to generate scoring opportunities through the rest of the period.

Towson, on the other hand, continued its streak by outhustling and outshooting Georgetown en route to a 6-0 lead at the end of the first quarter, finishing the period with 5-of-7 faceoff wins, 14 shots and 11 ground balls.

Two and a half minutes into the second quarter, Hodgson notched another goal to increase the Colonial Athletic Association team’s unanswered lead to seven. At 9:25, however, freshman midfielder Craig Berge put Georgetown on the board with an unassisted goal, finally slowing Towson’s momentum. The quarter would eventually end at 8-1 in Towson’s favor, sending the teams into halftime.

In preparation for the second half, Georgetown made important changes to begin its climb out of a seven-goal deficit.

“We knew it was sort of a focus [issue],” senior midfielder and co-captain Joe Bucci said. “We were in the right spots, [but] we were just a step or two too slow. We knew we had a good game plan going in, and we just weren’t executing at our highest ability. We also saw that they were able to put up six goals in a quarter, so we had the attitude if they can do it, we can do it also.”

Warne believes that the team succeeded in improving its focus as soon as the second half started.

“That’s not the team I know,” Warne said of Georgetown’s first-half effort. “I thought we did a really good job [in the second half]; we just had a little sense of urgency, and I thought [graduate student midfielder] Gabe Mendola did an awesome job in the second half battling to get us a bunch of possessions. But again, holding them to one goal in the second half — I was pleased with that, and I thought the guys fought really hard.”

Mendola changed the pace of the game immediately; he won the opening faceoff of the half, and a quick transition led to a goal from senior attack Bo Stafford off of an assist from sophomore defender Charlie Ford.

At 10:09, Towson junior attack Spencer Parks scored an unassisted goal to increase Towson’s lead back to seven. However, Parks’ goal would be the last from the Tigers for the rest of the game, and the Hoyas answered with a goal of their own just a minute later from freshman attack Matt Behrens. Two more Georgetown goals put the score 9-4 at the end of the quarter.

The Hoyas kept their comeback attempt rolling into the final period. Freshman attack Stephen Quinzi scored a man-up goal off an assist from senior attack and co-captain Reilly O’Connor. Sophomore midfielder Devon Lewis added another goal off an assist from Berge to make the score 9-6 with 5:44 left in the game to close Towson’s lead.

Three consecutive penalties late in the period, however, dashed Georgetown’s chances of achieving its comeback attempt. Though Georgetown effectively killed the man-down period without allowing any goals from Towson’s offense, it missed the opportunity to compensate for its deficit early in the game.

“Penalties are penalties,” Warne said. “Guys are going to play hard, that’s fine. But we just can’t put ourselves in a hole like that. I thought we were doing a pretty good job on man-down … [but] again, we just put ourselves in the hole. ”

Georgetown will have an opportunity for redemption next weekend when it hosts Hofstra (0-2), another team from the CAA. In the meantime, Warne emphasizes the importance of working on the team’s discipline in every aspect of the game.

“I think that’s the huge emphasis for this week, just having poise — whether it’s one goal they score or we score or [the ball is] on the ground, whatever it may be,” Warne said.