Say goodbye to Navy, say hello to No. 1

In front of 15,271 people, the third largest crowd ever to watch a lacrosse game, the Johns Hopkins Men's Lacrosse team defeated the United States Naval Academy Midshipmen 9-8.

Junior Adam Doneger broke an 8-8 tie with his second goal of the game with 5:42 left in the fourth quarter off of a feed from freshman Vince Smith to lead the second ranked Blue Jays to their sixth victory in a row.

"It took till the fourth quarter to play the style of lacrosse that we wanted to play. Navy is a tough team. They aren't just going to give up; they kept fighting until the end. We were fortunate to come up with the win," said Doneger.

Navy controlled the first half by putting 13 of their first 17 shots on goal. But senior goalie Nick Murtha stepped up, keeping the Blue Jays in the game with nine saves in the first half, and 16 for the game.

Freshman Kyle Harrison provided the only offense for Hopkins in the first quarter by scoring twice. In between Harrison's goals were tallies by junior Kelly Nash and sophomore Thomas Morris for the Midshipmen. Senior Eddie McKinnon scored the next two goals of the game for Navy to give them a 4-2 lead heading into the locker room for halftime.

Junior Bobby Benson opened the scoring in the second half less then four minutes into third quarter, making the score 4-3.

Navy junior Greg Conklin answered five minutes later to give the Midshipmen a 5-3 lead, before Hopkins rallied for four straight goals.

Freshman Vince Smith scored the first goal of his college career off an assist from sophomore Conor Ford with 2:53 left in the third quarter. Then only 15 seconds later, Ford scored on a feed from freshman Kyle Barrie, which tied the game 5-5.

Doneger then scored his first goal of the game by blasting a 15 yard rocket past Navy goalie Jon Higdon with only 38 seconds left in the third quarter. After the Blue Jays controlled the ensuing face-off, Benson found wide-open sophomore Joe McDermott, who had beaten his defensemen into the offensive one off of a substitution, and scored to make it 7-5.

However, Navy would not give up so easily. They came storming back with two goals just 1:30 apart early in the fourth quarter by sophomore Dan Eddy and McKinnon. At the 9:19 mark sophomore Kevin Boland found Benson in front of the crease, and he put it home to give the Blue Jays an 8-7 lead.

Less then two minutes later, Conklin scored his second goal of the game off a nice pass from sophomore Dave Pittard to tie the game up for the fifth and final time.

With 5:42 left in the game, Doneger blasted a 12-yard shot past Navy's senior goalie Jon Higdon for his second goal of the game. That last goal gave Hopkins their fifth one-goal victory of the year, and their fourth by a 9-8 score.

Benson said, "We've won a lot of close games by playing well at the end of games, but we need to learn how to play 60 minutes. If we play a good 60 minutes, we will be a hard team to beat."

The win was amazingly Hopkins' 28th straight over the Midshipmen, and improved the Blue Jays to 9-1 on the year. The only blemish on their record is a loss to Virginia in the fourth game of the year. Virginia, who had been ranked No. 1, was upset Sunday by Duke 14-13 in the ACC Championship Game on Sunday. This leaves the door open for the Blue Jays to capture the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament if they win their final two games against Towson and Loyola. Hopkins is ranked No. 1 in both the STX/USIL Coaches Poll and the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll.

However, Doneger explained, "That doesn't matter right now. We just need to come out and win this week."

Benson echoed that remark by saying, "We just need to take care of business the next two weeks. We need to take it one game at a time, and we'll be in great shape heading into the playoffs."

This is the second week this season that Hopkins has been ranked No. 1. The Blue Jays were No. 1 for one week after the Blue Jays won dramatically in a comeback win over Syracuse.

The Blue Jays will be looking for their seventh straight victory this Saturday at 1 p.m. at Homewood Field against No. 15-ranked Towson, who comes in with a record of 6-4. Towson is headed by former Hopkins Coach Tony Seamon. They have underperformed this season after making the NCAA final four last year.