WASHINGTON — Every time Princeton takes the field this season, its roster comes away with a new experience.

The Tigers, who didn’t play at all in 2021 because of the Ivy League’s decision not to sponsor sports in the heart of the pandemic, hadn’t lost in more than two years before last week. And with Saturday’s 10-8 victory at Georgetown, Princeton now has the first high profile victory in the post-Michael Sowers era.

“I feel like I’ve been in college for a while, but in terms of game experience that was the first time in two years we’ve ran out the game — when we had to burn the time at the end of a game,” Tigers attackman Alex Slusher said. “We have that weird balance of we all feel old and a lot of us are juniors, seniors, fifth-year seniors. At the same time, a lot of us can count on two hands the number of games we’ve played.”

That includes Slusher, who netted five goals in his ninth career game. Sam English added three goals and an assist and Erik Peters made 16 saves for Princeton (3-1), which forced a school-record 17 caused turnovers.

The Hoyas (4-1) had 22 turnovers, and never led in the final 57 minutes despite a 16-save day from goalie Owen McElroy.

“We broke a school record, right?” Georgetown coach Kevin Warne said of the turnovers. “This was disgusting. Princeton played awesome today. Coach [Matt] Madalon had his guys ready, and I’m not a huge coach-speak guy, but those guys played so much harder, I’m actually kind of embarrassed because it’s on me to get our team ready. We did not.”

Princeton wasn’t even at full strength, playing without defenseman George Baughan. The Tigers simply shifted some pieces around, with Colin Mulshine drawing his first career start and Jacob Stoebner assuming a larger role off the bench. Pace Billings spent time on an island defending some of Georgetown’s knowns, and long pole Andrew Song helped hold Declan McDermott scoreless on four shots.

“It was just our best versus their best, and I think our guys were prepared,” Song said.

Princeton scored 22 goals in back-to-back games against Monmouth and Binghamton to open the season, relative tuneups to a rigorous stretch that began with a 15-10 loss at Maryland on Feb. 26. Those were the first college minutes for Princeton’s first- and second-year players, and many of its older offensive players with either reserves or secondary options on the Sowers-led teams of 2019 and 2020.

Slusher had seven goals as a starting midfielder two years ago, and has established himself as a top option already through four games. Saturday marked his second five-goal game of the season, and he scored twice in the fourth quarter after Georgetown pulled within 8-7 on Alex Trippi’s fourth goal of the day.

“Those were tough, gritty plays,” Madalon said. “It’s stuff he does every day, sacrificing his body for the group. We appreciate it.”

As good as Slusher was, the major difference between the teams was in the middle of the field. Princeton repeatedly exploited transition to create scoring opportunities rather than getting mired exclusively in six-on-six situations against the Hoyas’ rangy defense.

One of the key figures was Luke Crimmins, a midfielder who shifted to defense just a couple weeks ago. He scored a second-quarter goal in transition and had five groundballs for the Tigers, who constantly applied pressure on Georgetown’s sloppy offense.

“That was our whole message,” Madalon said. “We knew it would be an absolute dogfight on either side of the field, offensively and defensively. We prepare our guys week in and week out to attack the middle of the field.”

That’s not to let Georgetown off the hook for its forgettable day. Its starting attack didn’t score outside of the final minute of the third quarter, and some of its turnovers were as much the result of lackadaisical play as they were Princeton’s effort.

Those issues didn’t escape the attention of Warne, who noted the Hoyas were on spring break this week and hinted things would not be nearly as much fun for his team as it is for students headed to Cancun, South Beach or the Bahamas.

“Just look at your seniors. You expect your seniors to step up and nobody stepped up,” Warne said. “The only guy who stepped up was Alex Trippi. Alex Trippi had four and Graham [Bundy] had two, but my goodness, some of our other guys. Our starting attack had two goals and one assist. That’s not enough. Twelve shots? We have to generate more.

“You can’t play offense when you turn the ball over 22 times, when your seniors don’t make plays that are very routine and we do things that are uncharacteristic, that falls on me. We’ll take care of that on Monday, I promise you.”

While Georgetown is left to figure out how to get back to the level of play that allowed it to defeat Johns Hopkins, Penn and Notre Dame, Princeton wound up with triumph to validate work done almost entirely out of the limelight over the last two seasons.

It also demonstrated the Tigers’ potential even without Sowers, who was the program’s central figure from 2017 to 2020 while setting the school record for assists (181) and points (302). This Princeton team is different — notably more balanced and stingier on defense — but it could be heard from plenty more before the spring is complete.

“This was a good program win for us,” Madalon said. “Our guys, they almost looked a little surprised. It was like ‘You can play in these games and play with anyone in the country.’”