The Hopkins water polo team came back with a vengeance in the Division III Eastern Championships in Erie, Pennsylvania this past weekend. The Blue Jay's claimed the 13th championship against their opponents Penn State Behrend, who they beat 20-6 and then Washington & Jefferson who they beat 21-5.
The team started with a 5-0 lead against Penn State Behrend thanks to junior Alex Whittam, who scored four goals in the first half.
Junior Kielan Crow also scored a pair. The Blue Jay's led for the entire third quarter 17-4, leading into the final quarter with a 17-4 lead. Throughout the final quarter the team each scored a few goals for the final score of 20-6.
In the end, the high scorers were Whittam with five goals, senior Mark Strickland with four, junior Ross Schofield with three and Crow with two.
The freshman goalkeepers, Danny Ovelar, Scott Weigel and Jacob Dorn made a combined seven saves. Crow was named the Division III Eastern Championship MVP, which he said was an award that certainly belonged to Hopkins, but could have gone to anyone on the team as they all played well.
After their first victory of the day, the Blue Jays moved on to play the Washington and Jefferson Presidents, where they dominated the first quarter 8-1, which set the pace for the rest of the blow-out.
Hopkins finished the first half with a lead of 11-3 and then more of the same in the second half as the Blue Jays scored 10 more to the President's two.
High scoring games seemed to be the trend that Saturday, which definitely boosted the Jays' morale to lead them to another victorious game the following morning.
The first quarter ended with a tie of 1-1, a slow beginning, but the Jays played beautiful defense for the next three quarters, only letting in two more goals, and with a lot of help from the goalies, who saved a combined 13 shots.
Hopkins ended up winning 10-3. Whittam and Crow each score hat tricks, Ross Schofield netted two goals, and Mark Strickland and Thomas De Lyon each scored one.
Overall it was a great weekend for the Blue Jays, who have played consistently well all season and needed a mid-season pick-me-up to continue through.
Kielan Crow articulates the sentiments of the team, "It's definitely been tough recently with the loss streak and losing a couple key players, but this weekend's reminded us of how good a team we are if we're mentally together.
"We just have such a young, but talented team, it's hard to bring it all together in clutch situations. Thankfully, we pulled off a must-win against Mercyhurst and we'll be ready to play Navy this weekend after a hard week of practice. Go Hop!"
Hopkins returns to action on October 29th as the Blue Jays trek to Annapolis to take on Navy in the Jays' regular season finale. The CWPA Southern Division match is slated for an 11:00 AM start.
