No. 10 Hopkins Slips Past No. 6 UMBC
from staff reports
CATONSVILLE, Md. - The 10th-ranked Johns Hopkins
men's lacrosse team built a seven-goal lead early in the fourth
quarter and held off a furious rally by sixth-ranked UMBC as the
Blue Jays escaped with a 14-11 victory at chilly UMBC Stadium
Tuesday night. Hopkins, which trailed for a total of just seven
seconds in the game, improves to 2-1 overall and improves to 7-0
all-time against UMBC. The Retrievers had their three-game
season-opening winning streak snapped and slip to 3-1.
The Blue Jays led 8-5 at the half and were up just 8-6 after UMBC's
Chris Jones scored an unassisted goal less than two minutes into
the third quarter. It took Johns Hopkins less than 90 seconds to
extend the lead back to three as sophomore Kyle Wharton fired home
his fifth goal of the season with 11:48 remaining in the third
quarter to make it 9-6.
The three-goal lead held for the Blue Jays until late in the
period, when an unassisted goal by Chris Boland ignited a four-goal
spree than took less than six minutes and pushed the lead to 13-6.
Boland had a hand in the first three goals during the run as he
assisted on back-to-back goals by Josh Peck and Tim Donovan after
his own marker before junior Michael Kimmel scored his third goal
of the game with 11:28 remaining to give the Blue Jays what
appeared was a comfortable seven-goal lead.
It took the Retrievers less than eight minutes to hop back in the
game as a Kyle Wimer goal 19 seconds after Kimmel's tally ignited a
five-goal run for the Retrievers that may have been bigger if not
for a pair of key plays by Johns Hopkins goalie Michael Gvozden in
the final three minutes.
An extra-man goal by Rob Grimm less than 30 seconds after Wimer's
goal made it 13-8 and Alex Hopmann sandwiched unassisted goals
around another goal by Jones to make it 13-11 with 3:34
remaining.
That would be as close as the Retrievers would get as Gvozden came
up with a big save on a Peet Poillon shot with 1:47 remaining and
then intercepted a pass by Grimm in front of the net with 1:14
remaining to kill UMBC's last chance. Wharton closed the scoring
with an extra-man goal in the final seconds to account for the
14-11 final score.
Ryan Smith had given UMBC an early 1-0 lead when he slipped home
his fifth goal of the season with 12:55 remaining in the first
quarter. It took the Blue Jays and sophomore Matt Dolente just
seven seconds to get the equalizer as Dolente cleanly won the
faceoff after Smith's goal and beat UMBC goalie Jeremy Blevins from
five yards out with his first goal of the season.
The clean win on the faceoff for Dolente was his second straight to
open the game and the Blue Jays would win the first 10 faceoffs of
the game before UMBC would win its first late in the second
quarter.
The domination on faceoffs, which came largely on the efforts of
junior Michael Powers, helped the Blue Jays slowly begin to take
control after Dolente's goal. An unassisted goal by senior Brian
Christopher with 1:20 remaining in the first quarter was followed
closely by an extra-man goal from junior Steven Boyle to make it
3-1 at the end of the first.
A Poillon tally just over 90 seconds into the second quarter drew
the Retrievers to within one, but Kimmel and Boyle added unassisted
goals just over two minutes apart midway through the period to make
it 5-2. The teams traded the next six goals to account for the 8-5
Hopkins lead at the half before Jones' goal early in the third
quarter set the stage for what turned out to be a run just big
enough for the Blue Jays to hold off the late spree by the
Retrievers.
The Blue Jays' starting attack unit of Boyle, Boland and Wharton
combined for seven goals and four assists with Boland and Wharton
both netting two goals and two assists. The four points are a
career-high for both, while Boyle's three goals improve his career
totals in three games against UMBC to seven goals and five assists.
Kimmel added his second straight hat trick to a balanced offensive
attack that netted its 14 goals on just 35 shots.
The star of the game for the Blue Jays was clearly Powers, who
entered the game having won 10-of-20 faceoffs in his career, but
won 17-of-24 with nine ground balls on the night. He is the first
Johns Hopkins player to win 15 or more faceoffs in a game since
Greg Peyser won 15 against Hofstra on March 13, 2005. Powers'
efforts helped the Blue Jays to a 19-of-26 showing on faceoffs and
a 38-20 advantage on faceoffs.
UMBC got a game-high four goals from Hopmann and two goals from
Poillon and Jones, but Wimer, who entered the game with 14 points
in three games, was held to just the one goal. Blevens posted nine
saves in goal for the Retrievers, who converted on 4-of-5 extra-man
chances, but couldn't overcome the discrepancies in faceoffs and
ground balls.
