Men's Lax rides strong defense to 5-0 start
The second-ranked men's lacrosse team held off a late surge by the 12thranked Princeton Tigers on Friday, besting them 10-8, before shutting out Manhattan at home, on Tuesday, 11-0. Hopkins remains unbeaten and improved their record to 5-0. Hopkins has now won 12 straight regular season games dating back to last year. Against their Ivy League foe, the Jays held a relatively comfortable lead late in the game, despite Tiger advantages in shots taken, 36-to-29, and ground balls won, 31-to-24. The Jays scored 10 goals on the strength of a balanced attack with eight Hopkins players notching scores on the day. Senior midfielder Mark G o o d r i c h and junior at t ac k m a n John Kaestner stood out, tallying two goals apiece.Kaestner was making his first career start after starting attackman WellsStanwick was lost to injury. Part way through the first quarter, a Hopkins penalty gave the Tigers an extra-man opportunity. Junior Tucker Shanley took advantage of it, finding the net for his fifth goal of the season. The Jays responded, however, firing off three unanswered goals. Goodrich set the tone with a quick-stick, no hesitation goal off a dish from juniorattackman Zach Palmer. Soon after, Palmer got in on the scoring himself, notching an 18-footer to the back of the net. Sophomore midfielder Rob Guida then added his third goal of the season to extend the Blue Jay lead to 3-1. Just eight minutes after Princeton had scored its first goal of the game, Hopkins roared back to take a two-goal advantage that they would not relinquish. Princeton whittled the score to a one goal game with just 15 seconds remaining in the first quarter, as junior Jeff Froccaro squeezed one past junior goalie Pierce Bassett on what was the last shot for the Tigers in the first half. The second quarter remained scoreless until just less than five minutes remained in the half. Palmer notched his second assist on a goal from junior midfielder John Greeley. Fellow junior midfielder JohnRanagan would cap the Jays' first half scoring with a score at the 2:03 mark. The Hopkins defense absolutely stifled the Tigers' attack in the second quarter, holding them to zero shot attempts, as the Jays went into halftime with a 5-2 advantage. Goodrich continued his strong showing with an unassisted eight-yarder midway through the third quarter to give the Jays a four-goal lead, 6-2. Princeton answered with two straight goals in the final five minutes of the quarter, one from junior ForestSonnenfeldt and the other from senior Mike Grossman with just seven seconds left in the period.Kaestner ignited the fourth quarter Hopkins offense with an impossibly angled score from behind the goal to give the Jays a 7-4 lead with just under 13 minutes remaining. Tiger senior Alex Capretta responded three minutes later with a score of his own to keep the Hopkins lead at two, but the Jays answered with three shots past Princeton senior goalie Tyler Fiorito to give Hopkins a 10-5 lead with 6:38 left on the clock. The first of these goals came on a rocket shot from sophomore attackman BrandonBenn from the high slot to extend the lead to three goals. The second was tallied just a minute-and-a-half later, with Kaestner recording his second score of the game off of a short drop-off from Ranagan. Junior attackman Lee Coppersmith found the top corner of the net off of Palmer's third and final assist of the day to finish the Hopkins scoring fest. Princeton attempted a comeback in the closing minutes of the game, asFroccaro scored again with six minutes left to cut the lead to four goals. A huge save by Bassett highlighted the tense and scoreless next four minutes, however, stopping the Tigers from clawing their way back in the game. Still, Princeton's relentless rally continued. Grossman netted one more with two minutes left on the clock, and sophomore TomSchrieber juked through the defense to find the net a minute later. For the next 60 seconds, though, the Hopkins defense remained steadfast to seal the impressive victory - their first over a ranked opponent this year. On Tuesday, the Blue Jays hoped to continue their winning streak and keep their perfect record in-tact, as they returned home to face the Jaspers of Manhattan. Against the Jaspers, Hopkins' perfect record looked to be in jeopardy as Manhattan managed to shut down the Blue Jay offense for the first 11 minutes to the tune of a 0-0 tie. However, at the 11:35 mark, Guida opened the floodgates with his fourth goal of the season to give Hopkins a 1-0 lead. From there, two goals by Greeley and goals from Kaestner and junior midfielder Lee Coppersmith in the final two minutes of the first quarter put the Blue Jays ahead 5-0. The rest of the game played out much like the first, with spurts of offense from the Blue Jays intermixed with periods of scoring droughts. Two Hopkins goals in the second, followed by four in the third and a scoreless fourth brought the final score to an 11-0 Blue Jays victory. By game's end, Greeley had picked up his second career hat-trick, while fellow first-line midfielderRanagan tallied a goal and an assist for two points. After a slow start to the season, the highly touted midfield unit finally produced points in the last two games. While the group managed only 11 goals in the team's first three games, against Princeton and Manhattan the midfielders broke through with 14 of the teams 21 goals, carrying an offense that recently suffered a string of injuries to several key players. At the attack position,Kaestner once again shined in only his second career start, recording a goal and an assist. Despite being the fifth attackman on the depth chart, the junior was forced to start after senior Chris Boland and freshman Wells Stanwick were lost to injury earlier in the year. The story of the day was the play of the defense. While Bassett seemed to struggle with the Princeton shooters on Friday, giving up a season high eight goals, Tuesday's game against the Jaspers was an entirely different story. With the help of a total team defensive effort, Bassett stopped all seven shots he faced while the Blue Jays as a team allowed only 14 shots total. All told, the 11-0 win was the team's first shutout since 1988, a 9-0 victory against Princeton. Coincidentally, current head coach Dave Pietramala and associate head coach Bill Dwan were both members of that 1988 squad. Hopkins will return to action this Saturday at M&T Bank Stadium, home of the Baltimore Ravens, in the Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic. The sixth annual Inner Harbor classic will feature some of college lacrosse's top squads and will conclude with Hopkins' 4 PM match with UMBC. The matches preceding the Blue Jays': at 11 AM, Princeton will take on the eighth-ranked Tar Heels of North Carolina, and at 1:30 PM, top-ranked Virginia and third-ranked Cornell will clash. The Jays will next be on Homewood Field the following Saturday, Mar. 17th, against sixth-ranked Syracuse in what should be one of Hopkins' toughest tests of the year.