Letting the opposition score in the last minute before halftime is a cardinal sin in soccer.

Allowing two goals within 15 seconds of each other in the game’s 45th minute is almost beyond belief.

Yet, Georgetown University’s Eric Kvello almost single-handedly overpowered a young GW men’s soccer team Saturday, scoring twice in the 45th minute to increase his team’s lead from 2-1 to 4-1 at halftime, in the Hoyas’ 6-2 victory over GW (1-1) at Harbin Field.

The first of the two back-breaking goals came as Kvello intercepted an errant Jeff Greenspan pass. The steal caught the Colonial defense off-guard and Kvello beat freshman goalkeeper Nick Parypinski for the score. Moments later, the Hoya defense again stole the ball, as Mert Incekara assisted Kvello, who completed a hat trick just before halftime.

“We’re going to make a lot more mistakes, but hopefully by the time the A-10s come around we’ll have eradicated most mistakes,” GW head coach George Lidster said.

The first 44 minutes of the game were hotly contested with the two teams trading goals. Georgetown (2-0) got on the board first in the 11th minute when Kvello beat two GW defenders and blasted a kick past the diving Parypinski into the lower right corner of the net.

The Colonials responded a few minutes later. Forward Enrique Reyes kept the ball deep in Georgetown’s half of the field against two Hoya defenders. His attempted pass deflected off a Georgetown player to freshman forward Jason Holloway, who deposited the ball in the net to tie the score at one in the 17th minute.

In the 27th minute, the Hoyas took the lead for good at 2-1 when Jason Partenza scored on a floater after snaring a pass over GW’s defense from teammate Denis Scott.

Georgetown pushed the lead to 5-1 in the second half following Kvello’s two late first-half goals. GW answered in the 60th minute when junior midfielder Evan Nierman boomed a 30-yard free kick just inside the right post, narrowing the gap to 5-2.

But as was the case all afternoon, the Hoyas capitalized on the Colonials’ defensive mistakes in the 63rd minute as Kvello stole a pass and fed Nate Port for his second goal of the game.

Despite all the defensive lapses, the Colonials can take away several positives from the game, including Holloway’s third goal in his second career game and scoring two goals against a nationally ranked Georgetown team that shut out fifth-ranked American University 2-0.

“The positive for me was not scoring two goals,” Lidster said. “It was the fact that we were 5-1 down and the guys kept going. We fought hard and kept our heads up.”

GW’s porous defense and inexperienced offense, which was out-shot 21-8 Saturday, should be bolstered by the probable return of midfielder Ben Ferry from a minor knee hyperextension. Ferry led the nation with 24 assists in 1997.

The Colonials return home to play George Mason at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.