Men's lax looking sharp in opener

The men's lacrosse team, the defending Division-I National Champions, got off to a hot start in their opening game, taming the Albany Great Danes 10-5 on Saturday, Feb. 22.

At first glance, this year's season opener seemed nearly identical to last year's opening day match for the Blue Jays. Both games saw the Jays take on Albany at Homewood Field in the season opener, each taking place at noon on the fourth Saturday in February, each in front of more than 1,700 screaming and anxious fans, and each being nationally broadcasted on ESPNU. However, head coach Dave Pietramala and the Jays were looking for a different outcome than last year's 8-7 come-from-behind defeat at the hands of the Great Danes.

"There was a lot of motivation," said senior co-captain Paul Rabil, the two-time First Team USILA All-American midfielder and top-ranked collegiate lacrosse player according to Inside Lacrosse. "For one, Albany beat us last year. It's the first game of season, so you always want to get off on the right foot. We were playing at home and one of our goals every year is to not lose at home. It was really important for all those aspects and we were motivated and we just wanted to outwork them."

Albany was able to get on the board first, as pre-season All-American Jordan Levine put the Great Danes up 1-0 with an unassisted alley dodge down the right side past Hopkins sophomore goalie Michael Gvozden just 36 seconds into the game. But the Blue Jays were undeterred, with sophomore attack Steven Boyle evening the score from 10 feet out off a pass from fellow sophomore Michael Kimmel just over a minute later, following that up two minutes later with an unassisted goal to put the Blue Jays up 2-1.

The Jays were able to find the net one final time in the first quarter at the 8:06 mark when senior co-captain Michael Doneger took an assist from junior Brian Christopher and rifled a shot past Albany goalie Brett Queener to give Hopkins a three-goal lead. Both defenses held the other teams in check for most of the rest of the quarter, but with just six seconds left before the end of the quarter, Levine scored from in close after holding the ball for nearly the entire 60-second shot clock.

"You never want to give up a goal late in a quarter because it gives the opposing team a lot of momentum going into the break," senior defenseman Matt Bocklet said. "We did not want to let the team down after that especially since the offense was doing their job."

As Bocklet alluded to, the Jays wanted to avenge that final goal. And judging by the play of the Hopkins defense in the second quarter, it showed that they were on a mission. Despite only scoring one goal in the second quarter, on a shot by senior Kevin Huntley 80 seconds in, the Hopkins defense did not allow Albany a single goal. After allowing the Great Danes 12

shots in the first quarter, the Blue Jays held the Danes to just three in the second quarter, while also leading in ground balls 10 to five and forcing six turnovers. Gvozdon also chipped in, recording three saves.

Fifth-year senior and co-captain defenseman Eric Zerrlaut acknowledged that the defense realized the need to step up in the second quarter.

"Our offense took a little while to get rolling, so it helped to motivate us to not let the rest of our team down," he said. "When one side is having a tough time, we've always counted on the other side to help out. We knew it was only a matter of time before our offense started rolling in the second half."

The Blue Jays scored the first two goals after halftime. Doneger scored his second goal of the game on an assist from Huntley just over two minutes into the second half; at 7:49, Rabil scored on an unassisted laser shot from 30 feet out to give Hopkins a 6-2 advantage.

"Feels good," Rabil said about getting his first points of the season. "Albany's coach [Scott] Marr did a good job with their defense, and for us it was really just a matter of trying to play around their system."

That goal turned out to be the eventual game winner, as Albany would be held to three goals for the rest of the game. But the game itself was far from over. The Great Danes would score three of the next four goals, the first by Joe Pompo on a man-up advantage after a penalty on Hopkins junior defenseman Michael Evans off of a hard body check. The goal was Albany's first in over 27 minutes. Hopkins answered shortly after with Huntley's second goal of the game, but Albany's twin brothers Steve and Mike Amman scored twice early in the fourth quarter at the 12:48 mark and the 12:10 mark respectively to put Albany within two goals at 7-5.

Flashing back to last year's game, Hopkins was up on Albany 7-5 early in the fourth quarter as well. But the Jays were not able to hold the lead, allowing three unanswered goals to end the game. This year, the Jays, including Evans, were out to make sure that did not happen again.

"We kind of knew that Albany was capable of going on runs, and when it was 7-5 we knew we really had to lock it down and not let what happened last year reoccur," Evans said. "So it was in the back of our minds. But when they go on runs, we're just focusing on the next goal."

Huntley scored his third goal of the game less than a minute later, giving himself a hat trick and the Jays a three-goal margin. Four minutes later senior co-captain and Third Team Inside Lacrosse All-American Stephen Peyser scored his first points of the season on an unassisted goal and Huntley finished the scoring with his fourth goal of the game on an assist from Stephen Boyle with 4:44 left in regulation. These final goals sucked the life out of Albany's offense, and the Jays closed out the game with a final score of 10-5.

The Blue Jays played a great opening game all around. Huntley finished with four goals and an assist, and Gvozden, who spent most of last season backing up superstar goalie Jesse Schwartzman, finished with 11 saves and six ground balls.

"I have never been more excited for anything in my life like I was for this game," Gvozden said. "Since I was eight years old I've wanted to be the goalie for JHU, so it was a bit emotional." Gvozden was quick to give credit to the Blue Jay defense in front of him, which put in a very solid effort.

"I give all the credit to my defense," he said. "They followed the scouting report to a tee and absolutely deserve the credit. I thought we played well together and those guys certainly made my job much easier."

Freshman Matt Dolente, playing his first career game, served as a faceoff specialist and won seven of nine faceoffs, most coming against Albany's All-American Levine, while managing to scoop up six ground balls off of those faceoffs.

"It is an exciting experience to put on that Hopkins jersey for the first time and play in the season opener, and it felt great to be able to contribute on the way to a win," Dolente said. "We knew that faceoffs would be very important to controlling possession and the tempo of the game."

The Blue Jay players themselves also raved about the fans at Saturday's game and how impressed they were with the atmosphere at "The Nest."

"We really loved the crowd out there Saturday," Zerrlaut said. "It was great to see all the students who came out on a cold, wet day to support us."

Fellow defenseman Evans said, "Our fans are great. They tend to influence us going on runs and us building up momentum. They always have our back and it gives us a lot more confidence and it gives us a certain type of swagger on the field."

Gvozden summed it up, saying, "Our fans are absolutely unreal. I love them."

Next up for Hopkins is Princeton, whom they will face on Saturday at the 2008 Konica Minolta Face Off Classic at M & T Bank Stadium in downtown Baltimore. The Blue Jays will face Princeton in a two-game event which features the four teams (Hopkins, Princeton, Virginia and Syracuse) that have won each lacrosse National Championship since 1991. The Hopkins-Princeton game is at 2:30 p.m., following the Virginia-Syracuse game at noon. For ticket information visit www.faceoffclassic.com/tickets.html.