WASHINGTON — After tallying just one shot the entire first half, the Lehigh men's soccer team had six chances in the second half, but couldn't get out in front, falling to No. 12 Georgetown, 2-0 on Tuesday afternoon at Shaw Field. The Hoyas (8-1-1) used two goals on curving liners in the early stages of both the first and second halves to pull away for the win, but the Mountain Hawks' (7-3-1) defense remained strong, keeping Georgetown out of the net for the majority of the contest.
 
"It's a small consolation for me, we didn't come here to do just do OK, we came here to compete and try and win," said head coach Dean Koski. "I think in our first half, we were more nervous than we should've been and once we settled in, we did OK.
 
"But I liked our effort, I liked our mentality that once we gave up that last goal, we just kept trying. We need to look at this as a learning, growing opportunity. Georgetown is one of the best teams in the country and the margin, maybe in shots is large, but it's all about scoring goals."
 
Achara scored the first goal of the game in the 13th minute to put the Hoyas out in front early. He took a pass from the left side and kicked one past Will Smith on a curving ball that found the back of the net.
 
Lehigh quickly brought the ball back in its own territory and tallied its first shot on goal of the game in the 17th minute with Natan Rosen, but his shot was saved. That was the only shot of any kind recorded by the Mountain Hawks in the first frame of play. However, Georgetown registered 13 shots in the first half, while Smith made two key saves including one in the 43rd minute to hold the deficit to just 1-0 going into the break.
 
The start of the second half was fast for the Hoyas' offense, registering two shots in a span of three seconds in the 47th minute before a Jacob Montes shot from the top of the box found the back of the net for Georgetown's second tally of the game, taking a 2-0 lead.
 
Lehigh had three shots on goal in the second half, but none ended up getting past the Hoya keeper, as Rosen had a chance in the 70th minute, Tyler Dressman had a shot saved in the 71st and then Trevor Koski missed a penalty shot in the 71st, that would have cut the deficit to 2-1.
 
The story of the entire contest was Georgetown's chances throughout the game with 14 more shots in the second frame, finishing with 27 total looks and 12 shots on goal.
 
After making two saves in the first half, Smith made eight saves in the second to finish with 10 over 90 minutes, a new career high. Smith made two saves in the final three minutes that kept the Hoyas' lead at 2-0.
 
"Will was really good in the second half, I think he would've liked to have that first goal back and those are the moments too that I know Will will look at make a better decision there," said Koski.
 
"But he had a really solid second half for us, kept us at least around and for him, we're going to be able to build off of that."
 
Rosen and Dressman led the team with two shots each, Koski added another, while Ikem Mbalewe had a shot off the bench.
 
With the loss, Lehigh falls to 7-3-1 and has its unbeaten streak snapped at five games. This is the first time this season that the Mountain Hawks have failed to register a goal and the first time the team did not tally the first goal of the game.
 
The Mountain Hawks will host Loyola Maryland on Saturday night at 6 p.m. as Lehigh tries to improve its Patriot League mark of 3-0-1. The matchup will be streamed live on the Patriot League Network.
 
"Yeah, I mean, I see Loyola as one of the top teams in the league and we certainly don't look at their past results because they have played good teams," Koski said. "They are going to be formidable going forward and we have good respect for their program and we're going to have our work cut out for us."
 
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