Johns Hopkins Lives to Fight Another Day
by Gary Lambrecht | Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online | Game Blog
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Johns Hopkins players celebrate after a goal Wednesday in the unranked Blue Jays' 13-6 win over No. 11-ranked Towson. © John Strohsacker/LaxPhotos.com |
Related: Jays Freshmen Thrown into Fire
BALTIMORE -- Johns Hopkins seniors Steven Boyle
and Michael Kimmel knew the score all too well. Win or else. Beat
No. 11 Towson, or get ready to finish a painful season and
graduate, knowing you’ll be remembered as stars on a team
that failed in a way that Hopkins simply doesn’t fail on the
lacrosse field.
Well, there is still a pulse over on University Parkway. Facing
exclusion from the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1971,
unranked Hopkins came out desperate and determined at Homewood
Field on Wednesday night, and produced its biggest victory of this
frustrating season with a rout over a crosstown rival that thought
it had a chance to do something rare.
Behind Kimmel, Boyle and junior attackman Kyle Wharton, the Blue
Jays played with the urgency befitting a team on the brink of
disaster. They scored the game’s first eight goals, shut out
Towson in the first half, and rolled to a 13-6 victory before 1,318
wind-chilled spectators.
Hopkins (6-7) is not out of the woods yet. The Blue Jays must
knock off No. 6 Loyola in their regular season finale on May 8 to
reach .500 and be considered for an at-large bid to its 39th
consecutive NCAA tournament.
Beating a Towson (6-6) team that was riding a five-game winning
streak was a good start. It marked the 15th straight victory over
Towson. Hopkins improved its lopsided record in the series to 35-3,
and it did so by taking out the Tigers with a first-half haymaker
and taking an 8-0 halftime lead.
The Blue Jays desperately needed a quality win, and they got it
with authority. Kimmel led the way with three goals and an assist,
collecting the 11th hat trick of his career. Boyle and Wharton each
had two goals and an assist. The Blue Jays also won the ground ball
battle decisively, 28-19.
“You try not to think about [the elimination factor]. You
just try to do the things you’ve always done, in terms of
practicing and preparing,” Boyle said. “It was
important that we started fast. The biggest thing was keeping our
foot on the gas.”
“Our season was on the line, and you saw a lot of character
in guys out there. Our backs are completely against the
wall,” Kimmel said. “Who knows if we’ll get a
chance at the playoffs? If we lose tonight, it’s summertime.
That weighs on us, but it motivates us.”
Not since 1992 have these schools met with Towson ranked higher
than Hopkins, which had lost six of its previous seven games -- the
last two after blowing leads of 3-0 to Maryland and 5-0 to Navy. It
was obvious in the early going which team was readier to play.
In a chippy first half colored by 13 penalties, including seven by
Hopkins, Towson was a bundle of nerves, turnovers, selfish play and
poor shot selection. The Tigers shot 0-for-15 in the first half,
whiffed on five extra-man chances and made life pretty easy for
Hopkins freshman goalie Pierce Bassett, who made nine of his 12
saves in the first half and smothered a flurry of shots down
low.
“They were so up and excited,” said Towson coach Tony
Seaman, whose Tigers can clinch an automatic NCAA bid next week by
winning the Colonial Athletic Conference tournament after winning
the regular season title. “Everybody has been telling them
for a week this is your chance [to beat Hopkins]. Then we threw it
away in the first half. I had to check their uniforms at halftime
to see who they were. Too many guys were trying to do their own
thing.”
Five different players scored to get Hopkins off to a 5-0 lead
early in the second quarter. By then, Towson was losing its
composure that was a big part of nine first-half turnovers and its
first scoreless half in over a year. Kimmel then took a feed from
Boyle and buried a 10-yarder from the right wing with 9:19 left in
the half. Following an unassisted goal by Tom Palasek, Boyle then
curled around the crease from behind and scored to make it 8-0 with
4:40 left.
By then, the Tigers were cooked, and the Blue Jays were still
alive.
“This just means we’ve got another chance to play for
something other than pride,” Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala
said.
