The men’s lacrosse team took on the University of Maryland Terrapins on March 6. The game started off fairly even, and then the Terrapins broke loose in the third quarter, scoring nine unanswered goals through early into the fourth quarter.
The game started out with a 3-1 Hopkins lead, which came from two goals from junior attackman Joey Epstein and another from graduate student midfielder Cole Williams. Maryland then came back, rallying off three straight to take a one goal lead. Then, with two seconds left on the clock in the first, Epstein found senior long stick midfielder Conner Delaney on the crease. This ended the quarter all even at four apiece.
An integral component of the Hopkins men’s basketball team the past three years, Delaney scored his first goal in Division-I lacrosse, despite having been removed from the game since coming to Hopkins. Delaney shared his thoughts on the transition from basketball to lacrosse.
“[The transition] went pretty smoothly I thought. It took me a bit to get back to feeling comfortable out there, but basketball and lacrosse are such similar sports, especially defensively, so I was able to figure it out and get back to playing well,” Delaney said. “As for the team, everyone has been great. A bunch of guys reached out when I first joined and said that they were excited to have me, and they are really fun to be around and compete on the field with. [My goal] is to help our team anyway I can, and I feel confident that even though I play long stick middie, I can help us out in transition.”
The second quarter remained tightly contested. This time, the Terrapins took a quick one-goal lead to start, but the Jays came back scoring three straight, giving Epstein his hat-trick and Williams two more assists. This run, however, would be the last time the Jays scored until the fourth quarter. The Terrapins finished out the quarter with two goals in the waning minutes to lock the score at 7-7.
In the third quarter, the Jays had six turnovers, with five of them forced. They only cleared the ball successfully half the time. The Terrapins capitalized by taking care of the ball themselves, as they had no turnovers and no failed clears. As a result, the Terrapins scored eight unanswered goals, putting the score at 15-7 heading into the final period of play.
The Jays tightened up their play in the fourth quarter, but it was not enough to overcome the deficit. The Blue Jays stopped the bleeding with back-to-back goals by junior midfielder Garrett Degnon and senior attackman Connor DeSimone. Williams also got his assist hat-trick in that sequence.
Maryland put an end to any thought of a comeback by adding on another goal after the Jays showed signs of life. The game came to a close with the Terrapins scoring again and Williams adding in a last minute goal for the Jays.
The game ended with a final score of 18-10. Although a loss, the competitiveness of the first half showed signs of life for the team going forward.
The Jays will return to Homewood to play the Pennsylvania State University Nittany Lions on March 13.
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