It took less than a minute for sophomore midfielder John Greeley to score the first goal of Hopkins’s matchup with Albany last Friday night at Homewood Field. Albany never led in the game, and Johns Hopkins rolled to an 11-6 victory, improving to 8-2 on the year and maintaining its #3 ranking in the polls. With the loss, the Great Danes fall to 4-6 on the season.
For the third straight game, the Jays built up a 4-0 first quarter lead. Greeley’s eighth goal of the season was the sixth time this year that the Jays scored on their first shot of the game. Sloppy play by the Danes, turning the ball over to the Jays and failing to create scoring opportunities allowed Hopkins to score quickly and easily.
Seniors Chris Boland and Mark Goodrich teamed up to score the next two goals, as Goodrich found Boland by the crease, and he worked his usual magic around the net to beat rotund Albany goalie Edmund Cathers. Returning the favor, Boland found Goodrich moving from right to left above the crease and ripped another shot past Cathers.
Sophomore midfielder John Ranagan scored an unassisted goal with 2:08 to play in the first to give the Jays the 4-0 lead. It could’ve been as high as 7-0 if not for some impressive play by Cathers throughout the period.
Albany got on the board with five seconds to play in the quarter, and at the end of one it was 4-1. The Jays held a 13-3 advantage in shots in the period.
It was the same story for the second quarter. A three-goal streak by the Jays in the first six minutes of the period gave Hopkins a 7-1 lead.
Senior attackman Kyle Wharton scored his 15th and 16th goals of the season during the run, with sophomore midfielder Lee Coppersmith finding the back of the net in between Wharton’s two goals.
The Danes cut the lead to five when Joe Resetarits scored the first goal of his hat trick with under five minutes to play in the half.
Play was back-and-forth for the remainder of the half, as senior midfielder Matt Dolente continued to win face-offs and sophomore goalie Pierce Basset made saves, each stop followed by a chorus of “Pierce Says No!” from the crowd.
30 minutes into the books, the Jays held a 7-2 lead.
Albany was not quite ready to roll over and die, however. Having beaten three ranked teams in Delaware, UMass, and Ohio State, the Danes came out swinging in the third.
After senior midfielder Tim Donovan scored his first goal of the season, Albany scored four of the next five goals to bring the Danes within three.
Back-to-back goals by Resetarits and Scott Raffensperger made it an 8-4 game. Boland’s second of the day and 19th of the season on an extra-man opportunity with 3:15 to play in the third made it 9-4, but Resetarits completed his hat trick with 1:09 to make it a four goal game.
It became a three goal game when Miles Thompson scored a man-up goal 13 seconds into the fourth. Albany’s run ended here, and the Jays dominated time of possession in the final period to ensure victory. Freshman Phil Castronova’s goal with 5:15 to play made it 10-6, and Ranagan added his second of the day to bring the final score to 11-6.
The statistics from the game reveal a rather one-sided affair. The Jays almost doubled Albany’s shots, 44-23, scooped up 13 more ground balls (38-25), failed on only one clear (19 for 20), Bassett posted five saves and, per usual, Dolente was dominant in the face-off category, winning 16-20, tying his career high. “We had a good week of practice and a good game plan coming in,” said Dolente.
Head coach Dave Pietromala was proud of his team’s performance, but realizes there are still improvements to be made.
“I thought we showed a lot of maturity,” he said. “But we were too casual in the second half. It’s still a good win, but hopefully this will wake us up a little bit.”
Ranagan agreed with his coach’s sentiments.
“We showed our age today,” he said, in regards to allowing Albany to close the gap in the third.
Now the Jays must prepare for a big #3 vs. #4 showdown when Hopkins travels down to College Park, Md. on Saturday night to take on University of Maryland.
“We’ll be ready to play for the full 60 minutes,” added Ranagan. Face-off time for the 107th meeting between the teams is scheduled for 8 p.m.
