The Wildcats (8-8, 3-5 Big East) fell to Georgetown (12-2-2, 8-0 Big East) 2-1 on Saturday afternoon at the Higgins Soccer Complex.

Despite jumping out to a 1-0 lead on a penalty kick from senior midfielder Sean Sheridan, Villanova was unable to hold off the No. 7 ranked team in the country. With the win, Georgetown clinched at least a share of the Big East regular season championship.

In the 19th minute of play, sophomore midfielder Lucas Hodges drew a penalty inside the 18-yard box and Sheridan slotted the penalty kick inside the right post for his sixth goal of the season.

Georgetown found the equalizer in the 26th minute when senior defender Keegan Rosenberry sent  a ball from the top right corner of the box to junior midfielder Bakie Goodman, who buried it inside the left post to knot the score.

Senior forward Brandon Allen recorded his fourth game-winning goal of the season for the Hoyas on a give-and-go at the top of the box in the 74th minute.

Georgetown outshot Villanova, 21-7, and took six corner kicks to the Wildcats’ three. Freshman goalkeeper J.T. Marcinkowski recorded the win for the Hoyas with two saves in the game, while redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Will Steiner made seven saves for ’Nova.

Villanova honored its seven seniors (Damilola Adetola, Colton Bryant, Randy Falk, Fabian Gonzalez , Chris Hill, Michael Manta and Sean Sheridan)  with a pre-game ceremony before kick-off.

The Wildcats find themselves in seventh place in the Big East standings with one final regular season game at Seton Hall remaining. The top six teams in the standings qualify for the Big East post-season tournament, which begins next week.

Georgetown is at the top of the standings and made it through league play without a blemish thus far. They Hoyas host second-place Creighton (16-1, 7-1 Big East), the No. 1 team in the nation, today to close out the season. Creighton’s only loss this year came to Xavier (11-4-1, 5-2-1 Big East), which is in third place. In order to earn the third seed in the Big East tournament, Xavier will need to knock off Butler (9-4-3, 5-3 Big East) which is only one point behind the Musketeers. 

Even with the loss on Saturday, there are a couple of scenarios in which Villanova can still make the Big East tournament. Providence and DePaul both currently sit one point ahead of Villanova in the rankings with league records of 3-4-1. With a Big East record of 3-5, the Wildcats would advance to the post-season with a win at Seton Hall and either a Providence or DePaul loss or tie. 

The Wildcats’ most important game of the season will be played at 1 p.m. today against a Seton Hall (0-14-1, 0-8 Big East) team that has failed to record a single victory this season. The Wildcats will travel to South Orange, N.J. to try to keep their post-season hopes alive.