For a struggling Irish squad, the Hoyas' bite proved to be just as bad as their bark.Entering the contest with a 27-0 all-time mark against Big East opponents - including a 5-0 record against Notre Dame - Big East-leading No. 3 Georgetown (9-3, 4-0 Big East) scored early and often en route to a dominating 14-6 victory over the host Irish (3-9, 1-3 Big East) Saturday afternoon at Moose Krause Stadium.One year after snapping Notre Dame's program-record 14-game winning streak with a 9-7 victory in Washington, D.C., the Hoyas had little trouble pounding an Irish team that has been unable to replicate last season's lofty record (12-5 overall)."It was a tough one," Irish coach Tracy Coyne said. "We wanted a different result, obviously. "We started out strong - we were dominating in the opening minutes, but we weren't placing our shots. I wasn't very pleased with our shooting percentage."While the scores at both halftime (8-1 in favor of the Hoyas) and after the final whistle (14-6) may suggest otherwise, the Irish dictated the first 10 minutes of the contest, uncorking six shots on goals to Georgetown's zero in the first eight minutes.Midfielder Lena Zentgraf finally broke through nine minutes, 10 seconds into the game, beating Georgetown goalie Sarah Robinson to stake Notre Dame to a 1-0 advantage.The lead wouldn't last long.Just over a minute after Zentgraf gave the Irish their only lead, Hoya attack Catherine Elbe knotted the score at 1-1 with the first of her game-high four tallies. More importantly, the Elbe equalizer sparked a string of eight consecutive Georgetown goals to close out the first half, effectively sealing the game and preserving the Hoyas' flawless all-time conference record."If we would have scored earlier - we took eight shots before we scored and even if we would have shot 50 percent, I think it would have changed the complexity of the game," Coyne said. "We would have had them in a panic. They called a timeout, so their coach was obviously concerned. "We just didn't put enough pressure on them early, and then once they settled into their game, they do certain things really well, and they started capitalizing. It just changed the way the game went."Irish attack Crysti Foote put the Irish on the score sheet twice in a 1:21 span to kick off the second half, but the squad found itself unable to make up any ground - the Hoyas responded to both Foote tallies with goals of their own to maintain a seven-goal advantage.Although Notre Dame was able to piece together a three-goal run in the middle of the second half - midfielder Kaki Orr and attack Mary McGrath recorded their first goals of the game and Foote finished off a hat trick with her third score - it was a case of much too little, too late as the Hoyas' picked up a couple more goals in the half's waning minutes to put an exclamation mark on the road victory.The loss left Notre Dame with a disappointing 1-4 mark on a five-game homestand that began April 1 with a 13-10 loss to Connecticut. After knocking off Rutgers, 12-9, two days later, the Irish dropped decisions to Duke and Stanford - 11-8 and 6-5, respectively - the weekend before Sunday's defeat.Only three games remain on Notre Dame's 15-game schedule. After traveling to Baltimore, Md. next Sunday, the Irish journey to Syracuse, N.Y., April 30 to finish out conference play before heading home to conclude the season against Ohio State May 7 at Moose Krause Stadium.
