At this point, Penn might decide to go back to Southern California.
At least there, when the Red and Blue lost, they did it in the sunshine.
After 90 minutes of relentless attack from Georgetown, Penn was beaten mentally and physically.
Despite firing 12 shots on goal, the Quakers (2-3) could not get anything past Georgetown (5-2) keepers Tomas Gomez and Keon Parsa and fell, 3-0.
Though Georgetown made the NCAA finals in 2012, the Quakers were not intimidated by the heralded Hoyas’ reputation.
“Our first goal was to win,” said senior goalkeeper Tyler Kinn, who made four saves in a losing effort. “We thought we were good enough to play with them.”
By the time Penn’s closest call of the night — a pair of shots from junior Duke Lacroix in the 88th minute — bounced off Parsa’s hands, the game was well out of reach.
“We really never got to the point where we could put things together … We played very tentatively; we didn’t have a lot of energy,” coach Rudy Fuller said. “We weren’t really playing collectively as a group, so they took it to us.”
Georgetown pounced on the Quakers’ defense early. In the 20th minute, Hoyas freshman Bakie Goodman knocked in a low shot past the left post. That was followed nine minutes later by a goal from fellow frosh Alex Muyl on a point-blank shot to give Georgetown a 2-0 lead.
The Hoyas took eight shots in the first half, putting constant pressure on Kinn.
“We struggled in the first half and kept it 2-0,” Kinn said. “But [we] really couldn’t do much to stop anything.”
Facing a big deficit, the Quakers came out for the second half with an aggressive mindset, which resulted in a pair of yellow cards for senior back Jonny Dolezal and freshman forward Alec Neumann.
“There was a difference in the second half,” Fuller said. “But it still wasn’t where it needed to be.”
Georgetown continued to dominate possession in the second half, with Kinn making four saves before sophomore Brandon Allen tapped in a cross from Muyl to give the Hoyas their final goal.
Georgetown’s dynamic offense was led by senior All-American forward Steve Neumann, the older brother of Penn forward Alec Neumann.
Steve set up Goodman’s goal in the 25th minute and drew the Hoya offense into close quarters with Kinn for the majority of the second half.
“[Steve] is their key guy, we did our best to bottle him up,” Fuller said. “But I think he had a little more time and space than we would have liked.
“For Alec, he did his best, he did what he does best, which is kind of battle and give us a target, but we were never really able to generate enough chances to give him an opportunity in front of the goal.”
Neumann is tied for the team lead in goals with senior captain Stephen Baker, each having tallied two.
In the wake of the momentum-halting loss, Fuller knows he has a puzzle on his hands.
“We felt really good coming off the weekend in California,” he said. “I don’t think what you saw tonight was the team we put out there in California.
“I think it was very different mentality tonight and that’s what we have to figure out.”
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