After several disappointing performances in the past month, the Georgetown men’s lacrosse team (4-7, 1-3 Big East) ended its four-game losing streak with its first conference victory Saturday. The Hoyas were able to hold off a fourth-quarter comeback attempt by the Providence Friars (3-9, 0-3 Big East) to emerge with a 10-8 victory.

The Hoyas and the Friars were tied 2-2 after the first quarter. Georgetown outshot Providence 8-5, but senior goalkeeper Tyler Himes kept Providence in the game with four saves, while Georgetown redshirt junior goalkeeper Jake Haley made none. Two of the Friars’ top scorers, senior attack Sean Wright and freshman midfielder Joseph Fitzpatrick, each had a goal.

In the second quarter, however, Georgetown established the dominance it would exert over the next 30 minutes of the game. Senior midfielder Grant Fisher scored the first goal of the period at 9:16, which the began a four-goal scoring streak for the Hoyas. The offense attack was balanced by a stout defensive effort as Haley also began to find his momentum. He ended the period with six saves, good enough to hold Providence scoreless during the quarter.

The half ended with Georgetown leading 6-2 as freshman attack Peter Conley, freshman midfielder Devon Lewis and senior defender John Urbank also scored goals for the Hoyas.

Haley anchored Georgetown’s defense for the rest of the game. His efforts in goal were aided by the defense’s communication and intuition, a performance Head Coach Kevin Warne was pleased with.

“I thought Jake did a very good job today,” Warne said. “Our defense let Jake hang out to dry the last couple weeks. … He made some saves today, and I think he was very active in picking up ground balls. … We had better communication than we’ve had in the past couple weeks, and you get rewarded that way by seeing easy shots at times.”

Georgetown began the second half similarly to how it ended the first. It commanded the entire third quarter by expanding its unanswered scoring streak by three goals. Conley scored his third goal of the game off of an assist from Fisher at 10:01, Fisher contributed a goal of his own later with 2:32 left, and then senior attack Jeff Fountain wrapped up the quarter by scoring a goal with nine seconds remaining.

With a score of 9-2 going into the fourth quarter, the Hoyas were poised to end the game with a sizeable victory. However, Providence proved that it would not give up. Aided by the efforts of Wright and Fitzpatrick, Providence’s leading offensive threat, senior attack Andrew Barton, contributed three goals and two assists in the period to quarterback a comeback attempt.

The Friars were trailing by just one goal in the final minute of play, but Haley’s stance in goal and Fountain’s empty-net goal in the final seconds of play allowed the Hoyas to survive.

Warne believes that Georgetown failed to respond adequately to the threats posed by Providence’s offensive force and needs to be more prepared to address these issues in the future.

“[Providence] did some [successful] things in the riding game, and I think we just didn’t have enough poise,” Warne said. “We allowed them multiple possessions. … They put a lot of pressure on us and we didn’t handle it as well as we need to, but that will be addressed in practice this week.”

Georgetown’s dominance on offense in the second and third quarters ultimately allowed it to walk away with the victory. The Hoyas had many scoring opportunities thanks to the continued efforts of redshirt senior defender and co-captain Tyler Knarr, whose faceoff expertise allowed him to move into second place in career faceoff wins with 413.

Warne acknowledges that Knarr is a crucial asset to Georgetown’s offensive success.

“At the end of the day, it comes down to [Knarr],” Warne said. “He was able to control 16-of-20, which was fantastic. He’s able to control the tempo, which was something we talked about coming into the game.”

Up next for Georgetown is a matchup against Lehigh (9-3, 5-2 Patriot League) next Saturday. Warne believes that the win over Providence, as well as continued improvement in practice, will help Georgetown earn another victory.

“We obviously haven’t had a lot of wins in the past month, and I think our guys were hungry for a win. We had a good week of practice as well, which really, really helped, I think. Again, we have to tighten up some things, but we’ll be ready to go.”