Blue Jays snap losing streak against Albany

Under the illuminating lights at Homewood Field, the sounds of the over 1,500 people in attendance pierced through the night. There was a tangible excitement in the air. The Blue Jays were ready to win again.

“During warm-ups you could tell that they were ready to play,” Albany goalie Blaze Riorden said. “They were hootin’ and hollerin’ ... and they came out hungry and took it to us early.”

Coming off of a three-game losing streak, the Jays struck early and often, scoring the game’s first seven goals. As junior attackman Wells Stanwick was tallying three assists in the first quarter alone, the Hopkins defense was impenetrable, allowing just a single shot. After 15 minutes, the Jays had jumped out to a commanding 5-0 lead.

“Credit to the Blue Jays,” Albany Head Coach Scott Marr said. “They came out ready to play in the first quarter and overwhelmed us. They came out and played with a little bit of desperation, and we weren’t ready for that.”

The second quarter was no different. Sophomore attackman Ryan Brown began the scoring with a goal, his third of the game, on an assist from Stanwick, the team’s leader in the category. Stanwick then tied his career high in assists with five, as he found senior attackman Brandon Benn, who promptly gave the Jays a 7-0 lead. Benn scored again following Albany’s first goal of the game. Sophomore midfielder Holden Cattoni ended the first half’s scoring with his second of the day. It was the Jays’ third goal with the stall warning, and it gave them a 9-1 lead heading into the half.

“All week we were stressing having the ball and not wasting possessions,” Stanwick said. “We thought in the past three games we’ve had a few possessions where we’ve had the ball for a few seconds and just given it back to the other team’s offense. We just wanted to focus on having the ball and taking our chances, but making sure they were good chances where we were scoring about 30 percent of the time.”

The Jays actually scored on 33 percent of their shots in the first half. The second half was a different story.

The third quarter began with a quick goal from Benn before things started to unravel. Under a minute later, the Danes responded with a goal of their own. Another minute passed before they cut the lead to 10-3. A Hopkins turnover on a failed clear attempt paved the way for Albany’s third goal in a row at the 10-minute mark.

After Cattoni and captain Rob Guida both got called for slashing, Albany was given a two-man advantage with a chance to close the gap even further. Diving saves from senior goalie Eric Schneider elicited cheers from the crowd and put a halt to the suddenly potent Albany offense.

“We just tried to weather the storm,” Cattoni said.

The Danes would score one more in the third on a behind-the-back goal from senior attackman Ty Thompson, the last of the trio of Thompsons to score in the game. Albany exited the third quarter within striking distance, down only 10-5.

Cattoni finally ended the Blue Jay scoring draught that had spanned almost two quarters and nearly 17 minutes. The goal came on Stanwick’s career-high sixth assist of the game, the most by a Hopkins player since Dan Denihan had six in a game against Hofstra in 2000.

The teams traded goals before Cattoni put the Jays up 13-6 with three minutes to play. Cattoni, who did not have a hat trick in his career until just last week, notched his second assist to go along with his four goals in the game.

Albany scored twice more before the game’s end, giving Hopkins its first victory in four weeks. The win snapped a three-game losing streak in which every loss came against a team ranked top eight in the nation.

“It’s nice to win,” Cattoni said. “The one thing coach kept saying to us is ‘In sports, you always have next week.’ You can’t change the last three games and our entire week we were focused on this game. We didn’t worry about Syracuse or Virginia or North Carolina. We worried about Albany.”

Despite losing the face-off battle for just the second time all season, the Jays improved to 3-0 against teams coached by former Hopkins players after their previous victories against Townson (Shawn Nadelen ‘01) and UMBC (Don Zimmerman ‘76). Next in line will be No. 4 ranked Maryland, whom the Blue Jays will host this Saturday during Homecoming Weekend.

“In the end, we’re going to do exactly what we’ve done with every win we’ve had before this,” Head Coach Dave Pietramala said. “The guys can enjoy it for the night, and we’re going to turn the page and go back to work.”

With this sentiment in mind, the Jays will look to build off of a much needed victory against the Danes in their matchup next weekend against the fourth ranked Maryland Terrapins. This rivalry is arguably the best in all of college lacrosse.

The Terps (9-1) are coming into Baltimore ready to battle on Homewood Field for the Blue Jays Homecoming game. This historic game will mark the 111th meeting between the two teams. Hopkins leads the series in wins with the record of 69-40-1 following last season’s 7-4 win.