Spring Break
Men's lax suffers early deficit, can't catch Terps
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With the stands filled with 10,000 fans and face-off time rapidly approaching, it seemed like lacrosse's greatest game was about to continue its legacy of tight action and great competition last Saturday night. But unfortunately, for both Blue Jays players and fans, the result was nothing short of disappointing.
In the 102nd edition of one of America's greatest sports rivalries, the Maryland Terrapins defeated the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays, 11-4.
The pace of the game was first captured and then thoroughly dictated by the Terrapins, as they won the initial face-off and proceeded to notch two goals while simultaneously keeping the discouraged Jays from scoring in the first period of play.
"[Maryland] had a great game plan coming in and that plan was really just to hold the ball for as long as possible," sophomore attacker Kevin Huntley said. "Not having the ball and then not taking advantage of the times when we did have it really killed us in the end."
After a loud pep talk from head coach Dave Pietramala during intermission, Hopkins came out of the huddle in the second quarter with a bit more determination than they had in the first. The result of this resoluteness was displayed by freshman attacker Tom Duerr at the 13:42 mark when his clever shot tricked the goalie to cut the Terrapin lead down to one.
However, that margin was as close as Hopkins would get to its rival that evening, because the Maryland incursion was just about to begin.
The Terrapin answer to Duerr's goal was quick and cunning as the sensational Joe Walters bobbed and weaved through a perplexed defensive formation to score his second goal of the game. Maryland then reeled off two more consecutive scores as the lead was increased to four. Freshman midfielder Brian Christopher took it upon himself to make the score 5-2 with a nifty shot of his own.
But as the remaining time ticked off the clock, the Hopkins defense looked ready to walk off the field before the end of the half. This blunder proved costly for the Jays as the Terrapins took advantage of the lackluster goal protection and shoveled a cheap one in to push the lead back to four.
The second half opened much the way the first started, with UMD controlling the tempo while keeping the ball out of the sticks of the dangerous Hopkins' attack.
One of the more welcomed sites in a game that had few for the Jays came when sophomore midfielder Stephen Peyser, fresh off the injured reserve, notched his first goal of the 2006 season. After recovering from a severely broken jaw and missing the first eight games of the season, Peyser was inserted off the bench to win 4-of-5 face-offs.
Although it was much too late in the game for Peyser's spark to create that big of a difference, it certainly will help to have his stick skills and tenacity in future match-ups.
Down 7-3 at home against their biggest rival, the Jays started to panic. This sort of desperation led to many passing errors and ugly clears as the Hopkins defense rushed to get the ball back into the hands of their offense. But as All-American Walters tore up the field and scored his second hat-trick of the game, the Hopkins team couldn't help but look helpless with the score 11-4 and time winding down.
Walters really was the story of the game, scoring six goals, passing for two assists, and slapping ten total shots.
His eight total points, the most in his career, impressed many of the members of the Hopkins' team, including senior starting defenseman Matt Pinto.
"I mean, hats off to him, he played extremely well against us," said Pinto. "He was on Team USA so obviously he is a talent that will be hard to contain in any game, especially one such as this."
Although both sides of the ball struggled throughout the game against an older and more experienced Maryland squad, it was the Blue Jay defense that had it the toughest. Junior goalie Jesse Schwartzman saved eleven shots, good for a 50-percent saves to shots on goal ratio.
Nonetheless, Schwartzman himself was not pleased with his performance and credited his opponent's ability to hold possession as the key component to a "terrible" loss.
"Maryland's offense got a lead, and held the ball for long periods at a time, and it's tough to get into a rhythm that way," said Schwartzman. "Our defense started to do things we are not accustomed to doing because we needed the ball."
Although the box score at first glance reads that the Jays were successful with most their clears and did a nice job in winning the majority of face-offs, the team's ten turnovers proved to the genuine deciding factor in a game mired in miscues and mishaps.
"Anytime when you have that many mistakes in a game against a top-caliber team like Maryland, you usually aren't going to come out on top," said junior attacker Drew Dabrowski.
Hopkins has now fallen to a record of 5-4 and is presently in danger of missing the NCAA tournament for the first time ever. The Jays will play next in Annapolis against Navy on Saturday, April 22.