In the NCAA tournament, where heroes are made and champions crowned, the JHU Blue Jays (11-5) knew that everything was on the line in their semi-final matchup versus Duke (18-2). Facing a Blue Devil team which the Blue Jays defeated in last year's NCAA championship game, Hopkins knew to expect a fight, even on the heels of a 17-6 Duke win on April 5. For Hopkins, which has six senior starters, a loss in this game would mean the end of the careers of Hopkins superstars Paul Rabil and Kevin Huntley, two of the most prolific scorers in Blue Jay history. A win, however, would give the Jays a shot at winning a third national championship in four years.
And with a stunning 10-9 upset victory on Saturday, Hopkins assured itself a spot in Monday's championship game.
Following a thrilling first semi-final game in which Syracuse mounted a comeback against Virginia and won in double overtime, the adrenaline and excitement were running high at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts (home stadium of the Super Bowl runner-up New England Patriots). Facing a top ranked Duke team in front of more than 48,000 fans, the Blue Jay players knew they would have to play at the top of their game.
"I'm humbled at what our guys were able to do today" said head coach Dave Pietramala. "Duke is as good an offensive team as we've seen all season long. I thought our team showed a lot of poise when Duke went on its runs."
Hopkins got on the board first when senior Kevin Huntley cut to the middle of the box and took a pass from streaking sophomore Michael Kimmel, flushing it to the left of Duke goalkeeper Dan Loftus. Duke recovered quickly and attempted to push the tempo of the game from the beginning. After a save on a Paul Rabil shot, Duke raced the ball down the field, concluding with Duke's Matt Danowski feeding Zach Greer for his 65th goal of the season, and the 56th assist for Danowski - the 31st time a Danowski assist has led to a Greer goal this season. Duke continued to dominate the possession in the first quarter and quickly seized advantage of their first extra man opportunity, with sophomore Max Quinzani scoring his 60th goal of the season just seconds after a pushing penalty on junior Matt Drennan to take a 2-1 lead with 45 seconds left in the period.
Hopkins held Duke's lead in check to start the second quarter on some great saves by sophomore goalkeeper Michael Gvozden. The Blue Jays started off the scoring again in the second quarter when junior Brian Christopher scored his sixth goal of the season to even the score at two. Hopkins would then double the lead in a span of fourteen seconds later in the quarter. Sophomore attack Steven Boyle took the ball from behind the goal and dove in front of the net, slamming down a one handed slinger at the 5:35 mark to take the lead. Senior co-captain Stephen Peyser won the ensuing faceoff and dumped the ball to Boyle behind the net, who then flung a pass to Huntley who proceeded to throw a no-look, behind the back-over the shoulder shot past Loftus to give the Blue Jays a 4-2 lead. The goal was Saturday's top play on SportsCenter's 'Top Ten'.
"I have enough confidence in him and his abilities that he'll pick and choose the right time to do it" said Pietramala referring to Huntley's circus shot. "When you can actually do it then it's o.k., and Kevin's shown that he can do that."
Neither team would score again before halftime, and things were looking in the Blue Jays favor. Duke's two goals were the fewest first half goals it had scored all season, and no team had led at the half against them either. Hopkins defense also really clicked in the second quarter, holding the Blue Devil's scoreless in a quarter for only the fourth time this season.
After holding Duke goalless on a man-down defense, the Blue Jays kicked off the scoring for the third consecutive quarter when senior co-captain Michael Doneger received a pass from Rabil right in front of the goal, turned around, and punched it in to give Hopkins a three goal lead.
But Duke was still out to show that it was the number one team in the country for a reason. Despite not having scored for more than 20 minutes (the 12th time this season Hopkins has held an opponent scoreless for 20 minutes or more) the Blue Devils reeled off three consecutive goals in forty five seconds from 10:41 to 9:56; the first by Steve Schoeffel, the second by Quinzani and the third by Terrence Molinari to even the score at five.
Pietramala called a timeout to allow his team to regroup, which helped to stop Duke's momentum. Shortly after play resumed Rabil, a Tweaarton award finalist, did what he does best - taking the ball at the top of the box and dodging past defenders, resulting in a shot from about 15 yards out which beat Loftus to his right, helping Hopkins regain the lead. The goal was Rabil's 30th of the season, a new season high for him.
The Blue Jays would get one more spectacular goal from Huntley before the period ended. Hopkins forced Duke to turn the ball over with fifteen seconds remaining, and after a scrum near the top of the box Huntley came up with the ball, took a long windup, and fired home another Hopkins goal with 0.2 seconds remaining on the clock for his fifth hat trick of the season.
"The ball kind of popped my way," said Huntley. "When I scooped it up, I looked at the clock and it was running down. I threw it at the net. I guess I got lucky and it went in."
With a 7-5 lead, the game was Hopkins' to lose. Duke struck first in the fourth on Danowski's 40th goal of the season, but the Blue Jays came right back and at the 7:25 mark a wide open George Castle took a pass from Peyser and fired it into the back of the net to push the lead out to two. But Duke remained feisty, with Danowski answering Castle's goal twelve seconds later, and Blue Devil defenseman Nick O'Hara scoring six seconds after that to tie the game at eight.
On the faceoff following the goal, Peyser was chasing a loose ball when he was pushed to the ground by O'Hara, and Hopkins capitalized on their first extra man opportunity when a cutting Boyle took a pass from Kimmel and scored to give Hopkins a 9-8 lead. Hopkins would score again at the 4:18 mark when Huntley scored his fourth goal of the game on a fast break, doubling the lead to two goals.
It was up to Hopkins defense now to stop Duke from tying up the game. Gvozden made seven of his career high tying seventeen saves in the fourth quarter, using every part of his body and his stick in attempting to stop the ball from getting past him.
"We got fabulous play in the goal," said Pietramala. "Gvozden grew up right in front of your eyes."
Hopkins offense, which Pietramala often describes as being the Jays "best defense" held the ball for nearly a minute before turning it over at the 1:05 mark on a hard hit. Duke raced down the field but a shot by Quinzani was saved by Gvozden with 47 seconds left. Duke kept chipping toward the Hopkins goal, and after a Duke timeout Brad Ross scored his 25th goal of the season to cut the margin to one. Hopkins won the faceoff, but turned the ball over with fifteen seconds left and Duke charged toward the Hopkins goal needing to score a goal to keep their season alive. After calling a timeout with 3.9 seconds left to set up one more play, Danowski's shot attempt was deflected away by Gvozden and a last second fling attempt landed away from the goal as Hopkins player rushed toward midfield to celebrate.
Hopkins takes on Syracuse in the championship game on Monday in a clash of lacrosse titans. The two teams have met four previous times in the championship game, splitting the series 2-2. The last time these two teams played the championship game was in 1989 when Pietramala was a star defenseman for the Blue Jays. The game is scheduled for 1 p.m. and will be nationally televised on ESPN. Tickets are still available at www.gillettestadium.com.
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