Believe it or not, five weeks of the NFL season are already in the books. Everything seems to be getting back to normal: Brady’s back, the Browns cannot find a QB and my fantasy team is awful.
José Fernández was one of the brightest young stars in baseball, and after two seasons filled with injuries, this season was finally the breakout campaign with the Miami Marlins that everyone had been anticipating. Fernández was truly on his way to becoming one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. But while out boating at 3 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 25, Fernández and two others were killed when their boat crashed into a jetty.
Halfway through the 2016 regular season, the Hopkins football team remains undefeated. Standing 5-0, the Jays knocked off yet another conference rival, the 3-2 Juniata Eagles, at Homewood Field last Saturday. The Jays put up 38 points in the first half and never looked back.
After a week of practicing in the rain, the Hopkins men’s soccer team was unfazed by the grim conditions, coming up with a 2-1 win in a rain-doused match against Gettysburg last Wednesday. The Jays entered the contest 0-2 in the Centennial Conference but proved their season was far from over in a triumphant win against the sixth-ranked Bullets, who entered play with a six-game undefeated streak.
Hopkins field hockey earned a 2-0 victory against Swarthmore College in their second annual “Defeat DIPG Yellow Game” last Friday. The Blue Jays came onto the field sporting yellow socks, the color for childhood cancer awareness, to support the Michael Mosier Defeat DIPG Foundation, which raises awareness for Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma.
This past weekend, the Hopkins water polo team defeated Fordham University and fell to Wagner College in two of their most closely contested conference matches yet. Instrumental to the team’s success was this week’s Athlete of the Week, junior captain and goalie, John Wilson.
Heading into week three of the NFL Season, both the Carolina Panthers and Arizona Cardinals sat at 1-2 on the year. The NFL always has its surprises, but it was strange to see both participants in last year’s NFC Championship game get off to slow starts.
Is there anything more exciting than college football? Well, maybe March Madness, but beyond that, there is no other sport that provides as many astonishing comebacks and stunning upsets as college football. Just five weeks into the season, there have already been numerous instant classics which have paved the way for a thrilling stretch run as the nation’s best teams vie for four spots in the illustrious College Football Playoff.
This past weekend, ninth-ranked Hopkins football improved to 4-0 on the season, with a thrilling 30-24 win against rival #24 Muhlenberg Mules in Allentown, Pa. The Blue Jays and Mules are annually amongst the top teams in the Centennial Conference, with one of them having held a share of the conference title every year since 2001. The game is often among the toughest all season for Hopkins, and this year was no exception. The News-Letter recognizes that there were a number of viable candidates on the team for the Athlete of the Week, such as senior linebacker Garrett Spek, who was named Centennial Conference Defensive Player of the Week and senior safety Jack Toner, whose two interceptions late in the game helped seal a victory for the Jays. Offensively, quarterback Jonathan Germano, wide receivers Bradley Munday and Brett Caggiano and running back Ryan Cary helped lead the offense and were worthy of recognition as well.
With less than a week left in the MLB regular season, there are only a couple playoff spots left in question, so it is time for a preview for the 2016 MLB playoffs.
After three weeks of NFL action, you can usually get a pretty good sense of who is going to be contending for the Vince Lombardi Trophy at the end of the season. While some teams who start hot inevitably fizzle out due to injuries, decreased performance or a more difficult schedule, most of these early undefeated teams end up maintaining their success.
In the first three games of the 2016 season, the Hopkins football team went 3-0, outscoring opposing teams by a combined 115-57 margin and only trailing once, for a period of about eight minutes in the first half against Moravian. In the team’s fourth game, however, it would take a 60-minute, four-quarter effort to knock off Conference rival Muhlenberg 30-24 and remain undefeated in the young season.
In a disappointing overtime defeat, Hopkins men’s soccer lost to Swarthmore 1-0 last Saturday at Homewood Field, leaving the Jays 0-2 in the Conference.
The Blue Jays dominated the Muhlenberg Mules 2-0 in their first Centennial Conference shutout of the season. Saturday’s victory is the Blue Jays’ fourth straight win, as they defeated St. Mary’s, Washington College and Rutgers University-Camden prior to the Mules.
After what was arguably one of their worst starts to open the season, the Hopkins water polo team started to see a change in momentum as Conference play began this weekend. The loss of their first seven games, while disheartening, is an ill-portrayal of the Blue Jays’ capabilities and not indicative of the future of their 2016 season.
Following her standout performance at the Iona Meet of Champions this past weekend, The News-Letter has chosen Felicia Koerner as the Athlete of the Week.
The Hopkins Field Hockey team beat local opponent Goucher College on Sunday Sept. 18, in an exciting overtime victory. Hopkins was immediately put under pressure as Goucher went on the offensive. Nine minutes into the game, Goucher already had the first point on the board.
With the US Open in the rear view, the men on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) World Tour will finally have some time to rest after a long and grueling summer. The major season has come to a close and the Shanghai Masters and ATP Finals are the only significant tournaments left during the calendar year.
The Hopkins women’s soccer team turned in a dominating performance against the Washington College Shorewomen, defeats the Shorewomen 5-1 in the Centennial Conference opener away from Homewood Stadium. The win brings them 3-1-2 on the young season as conference play gets into full swing.
Battling for the victory in their Centennial Conference openers, the Blue Jays and the Haverford Fords went head to head on Sept. 17. The Blue Jays were a little over three minutes away from taking the game to overtime until the Fords scored a late goal earning them the 3-2 win. The game marks the end of the Jays’ six-game winning streak.
