With the NCAA playoff picture quickly coming into focus, the Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team finds itself in familiar territory -- atop the GEICO/STX rankings once again.
The Blue Jays survived a scare against No. 5 Navy (9-3) at home this past Saturday, preserving their undefeated record in the process. In addition to securing a 9-8 overtime victory, the Jays also extended their school record home winning streak to 33 straight games.
Senior midfielder and co-captain Kyle Harrison fueled the come-from-behind victory, scoring a game-tying goal that forced overtime and the eventual game winner midway through the first extra frame. Harrison, a strong candidate for this year's Tewaarton Award, scored a career-high five goals.
"We prepared like we do for every other game," said Harrison. Navy is an extremely talented team, with some very talented players. We knew it would be a tough game."
Harrison, a two-time Tewaarton finalist, was pegged as one of the remaining 16 nominees for lacrosse's version of the Heisman Trophy. The fleet-footed Harrison was one of five finalists in both his sophomore and junior years.
Harrison currently leads the Blue Jays in goals (17), assists (16) and points (33). His 16 assists are a career-high and his 33 points are just three away from his single-season career-high of 36 in 2003. He is averaging over four points per game in his last four games.
Harrison drew first blood against Navy just 49 seconds into the game, when he scored an unassisted goal to put Hopkins on the board. Senior midfielder and co-captain Matt Rewkowski then made it 2-0 off an assist from senior attacker and co-captain Peter LeSueur.
Navy quickly answered, however, scoring three unassisted and unanswered goals in less than seven minutes to give the Midshipmen a one-goal edge heading into the second quarter. But the second frame was all Hopkins, as the Jays rattled off a 4-0 run of their own to take control once again.
Rewkowski sparked the scoring run with a man-up goal off an assist from freshman midfielder Paul Rabil that tied the score at 3-3. Harrison and sophomore attackman Jake Bryne then scored goals of their own to give Hopkins a 5-3 lead going into half.
Hopkins carried over that momentum into the third quarter, as senior midfielder Joe Malo converted an assist from LeSueur to five Hopkins its largest lead of the day.
But the resilient Midshipmen mounted a furious comeback attempt following Malo's score, scoring four answered goals in a span of just 3:42 to close the quarter with a 7-6 lead over Hopkins.
Harrison scored his third goal of the game early in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 7-7 after beating Navy goalie Matt Russell up high. The game stayed tied until the final minute of regulation, when Navy took advantage of a loose-ball situation. Navy's Nick Mirabito scored his 19th goal of the season off an assist from Jon Birsner to give the Midshipmen the lead with 58 ticks left on the fourth-quarter clock.
With such a late momentum swing in favor of the Midshipmen, junior midfielder Greg Peyser turned the tide with a faceoff win that set the stage for Harrison's game-tying goal with only 23 second remaining in regulation.
"Greg Peyser went out there and calmly won the faceoff," said Harrison, who forced overtime after Peyser's faceoff win. "[That] gave our team a lot of confidence. We didn't panic, because we've been down before. We ran the offense that [Assistant] Coach [Seth] Tierney drew up for us, and I was fortunate enough to be able to get us a goal to keep us in the game."
Hopkins had the final possession of regulation, but Russell saved a late shot by Bryne to force the game into overtime.
Navy won the opening face off in overtime before the Blue Jays were awarded possession after an errant shot by Navy's Steve Looney.
Harrison took care of the rest.
"In overtime, Greg Peyser made a great move and drew the double team, and skipped the ball to me wide open on the backside," said Harrison. "All I had to do was throw it in the goal. He did the hard part."
The decisive goal was the second game-winning overtime score of Harrison's career.
The Midshipmen had eight different players score each of their eight goals, while the Blue Jays had four players score. Rewkowski was the only Blue Jay besides Harrison to post more than one goal.
Navy held advantages in shots (30-27) and ground balls (34-21), but the Blue Jays controlled the faceoff circle, winning 12-of-21. Harrison and Peyser were responsible for 11 of the Jays' 12 faceoff wins.
Sophomore goalie Jesse Schwartzman and Russell registered seven saves apiece.
Hopkins will travel up Charles Street this Saturday to play local rival Towson University.
"We need to continue to improve on a daily basis," said Harrison. "While we're 10-0 we don't feel like we've played our best lacrosse yet, and so these last two weeks we want to work all the kinks out and get ready for what we've been working for all year long."
Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The News-Letter.