In their last full-length season -- two years ago -- the Duke Blue Devils lost a nail-biter to Hopkins' men's lacrosse team, 11-10, in overtime at Homewood Field. A lot has changed in lacrosse since then, particularly for Duke, but on Saturday the two teams put on the same type of exciting showcase, this time with Duke edging the Blue Jays, 11-9. With the loss, Hopkins falls to 4-4 for the season.
Prior to the game, Duke was ranked fourth in the country and Hopkins ninth. Add in the fact that Duke was coming off of a cancelled season due to sexual assault allegations, and anticipation and expectations were quite high -- particularly from a fan standpoint -- for the match-up.
In front of nearly five thousand fans, the Blue Jays got off to a solid start. Only 53 seconds into the game, junior midfielder Stephen Peyser scored the game's first goal. It was Peyser's fifth goal of the season and, because he missed eight games last season due to a broken jaw, surpasses his total from the team's 2006 campaign.
The Blue Devils, however, responded quickly, stopping any thought of a big Hopkins lead. Midway through the first quarter, Duke junior attacker Zack Greer, who, with 33 goals this season, is second in the NCAA, got two back-to-back goals in the span of less than a minute, putting his team up for the first time, 2-1. One of the top offensive players in the game, Greer demonstrated his talents both early and late. He ended up with a double hat-trick, tallying six goals in total.
After the two Greer goals, Hopkins and Duke went back and forth, exchanging goals, with both teams struggling to gain the upper hand. For Hopkins, Peyser, junior midfielder Matt Bocklet, freshman attacker Steve Boyle and junior attacker Kevin Huntley combined for four goals after Greer's first two, and the team went into halftime down a goal, 6-5.
Even with the one-goal deficit, things seemed to be clicking for the Jays. The defense was able to stop the vast majority of Duke's 23 first-half shots, and the offense was doing a good job at keeping the game close and taking advantage of its opportunities.
"We wanted to get after them early," Boyle said. "We had some good shots early on that we were fortunate to capitalize on."
After that, however, the game unraveled, at least from the Blue Jays' standpoint. Within the second half's first three minutes, Duke got on the board three times, extending the lead to 9-5. From then on, the two teams reverted to the exchanging of goals that had characterized most of the first half.
In the fourth quarter, senior goalie Jesse Schwartzman and his defense did give Hopkins a bit of a chance to get back into the game. Helped by only four Duke shots on goal, the defense let in only one goal in the quarter, allowing the offense to take advantage of any opportunities that came its way. By then, however, it was too late. Hopkins was unable to gain any sort of edge on Duke. Ultimately, the three early third-quarter goals were critical, as Duke would end up winning by only two.
"We had a little lapse in the beginning of the second half," assistant coach Bobby Benson said. "When you give a team like Duke an opportunity like that, you dig yourselves a hole that's really hard to climb out of."
The game was significant in a number of ways. From a lacrosse perspective, the two teams were ranked in the top ten and were considered preseason favorites to win the NCAA Championship. From a different perspective, Duke was coming off of a cancelled season due to the aforementioned allegations made in 2006; as a result, there has been increased media attention on every game the team plays, and the team's recent string of victories have only added to that.
When the Blue Devils have traveled this season, they have faced much heckling related to last year's events, and the Hopkins coaching staff made a special effort to encourage Hopkins' fans to be enthusiastic but not insensitive. In an e-mail sent the day before the game to the entire student body, head coach Dave Pietramala asked that fans "[treat] our opponent with a level of respect they have not encountered on many campuses." Overall, Coach Pietramala appeared to get his wish, as things never really got out of hand, and the fans were generally positive.
"The atmosphere was great," Boyle said. "The student turnout and atmosphere was awesome."
"Our fans are always great," Benson added. "They were tremendous, and we really appreciate that."
