On the strength of a barrage of goals to pull away in the third quarter, the men's lacrosse team collected their first win in over a month. The Jays decisively triumphed over their archrivals, the University of Maryland Terrapins, by a score of 10-4.
The 104th meeting of the two in-state lacrosse goliaths also coincided with the Hopkins Homecoming weekend, which helped to facilitate a game attendance of 8,600 - nearly double the next largest turnout at Homewood Field this season.
The extra members in the audience, which consisted of many alumni, did not bother the Jays who gave an all-around solid effort for the entire 60 minutes.
"We play in front of big crowds a lot. I think we only feed off that energy," freshman attack Kyle Wharton said. "Hopkins has the best atmosphere for a lacrosse game and the Hopkins-Maryland rivalry is the best in lacrosse.?We really wanted to come out and play hard."?
The victory was no easy accomplishment for the Jays, who were mired in a record-setting five-game slide.
In the four games prior, Hopkins had at least 12 goals scored on them and simultaneously, the offense wasn't able to pick the team up, netting no more than eight goals in each of their last three games.
"I feel that any and all solutions to our so-called problems have now been found and I think it showed on the field against Maryland," junior midfielder Austin Walker said.
This was demonstrated by the guys playing extremely well in a first half where the Jays kept the pressure on the Terrapin defense with 19 shots, which resulted in Hopkins taking a hard-fought 3-2 lead into halftime.
"We were dominating time of possession in the beginning of the game. It was only a matter of time until the other team started to fall," Wharton said.?
Coming out of the locker room, the team continued to promptly set the tone. Directly from winning the faceoff, senior midfielder Stephen Peyser drove straight towards the net to score only four seconds into the second half.
In the span of the six minutes that followed, Hopkins put four more unanswered points on the board. The feat was unprecedented, considering the Terps had outscored their opponents 28-14 this year in the third quarter.
"We made sure we did everything in our power as a team to get the win. We realized positive things happen when we play together," Walker said.
Walker scored back-to-back in the flood of offense. He was sandwiched with goals by senior midfielder Paul Rabil and senior attack Michael Doneger, who both executed hat tricks against the Terps.
Before the time expired, Hopkins and Maryland each got two more goals to keep the six-point difference intact.
Success for the Blue Jays undoubtedly started in the face-off square, where they took control of the ball the first four times, with three of those wins by Peyser.
"Stephen really did a terrific job," freshman midfielder Matt Dolente said.?"I was able to relieve him when he needed a break, but he took the majority of the draws and dominated."
Dolente made five appearances in place of Peyser, who notched only one face-off loss, allowing the Jays to go 15 for 18 in draws on Saturday.
"It is a great boost to your team when you can win draws the way we did.?It allows you to play looser knowing that you will get the ball right back," Dolente said.?
Having initial possession of the ball also factored into the Jays getting on the board early. A minute and a half into the game, Rabil outmaneuvered the coverage on him and fired the ball through the shooting lane created by the other members of the Hopkins offense.
"It was as unselfishly as we have played all year," assistant coach Bobby Benson said.
The defense also displayed some genuine teamwork, keeping the Terps' number of shots-on-goal in check to take the weight off sophomore goalie Michael Gvozden, who has delivered below-par performances in the past few weeks.
"We weren't following [head coach Dave Pietramala's] details as closely as we should have, but I think our seniors have done a good job of addressing that issue. Hopefully we can turn our season around now," senior defensive midfielder George Castle said.
If this course-correction is permanent, it could be the beginning of another perennial Blue-Jay playoff run. With Pietramala at the helm, Hopkins has yet to miss a NCAA tournament berth. However, only four more games remain on the schedule, so the clock is running to salvage what was formerly a highly-touted season.
The team looks to regain a .500 record when they head to Annapolis to play Navy this Saturday at noon.
