ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: Zach Palmer

It is no surprise to fans
and opponents
alike that the
Hopkins men's
lacrosse team
is off to a great
start. With a
huge win over
UMBC this past
weekend in the
annual Konica-
Minolta Face-
Off Classic at
M&T Bank Stadium,
12-5, the
Blue Jays further
displayed their
dominance in
the Division I
lacrosse scene,
imroving their
record to 6-0.
The secondranked
Jays kept
pace with the
top-ranked Cavaliers of
Virginia, who won early in
the Classic against Cornell,
9-8.
Zach Palmer, a junior
attackman from Oshawa,
Ontario stepped his game
up on the big stage of the
Baltimore Ravens' home
turf and ESPN3.com. The
Hill Academy graduate
is having a stellar season
and was relentless in Saturday's
victory. Palmer's
career-high eight points
helped the Blue Jays in
their lob-sided win over
the Retrievers. It is for his
great play in the match, in
addition to his already successful
season and career,
that The News-Letter has selected
Palmer as their Athlete
of the Week.
Palmer, a stocky fivefoot-
eight and 168 pounds,
scored the first goal of the
game - putting the score
at 1-0 - just about five
minutes into the game with
a great assist from Brandon
Benn, a sophomore and fellow
Canadian attackman
from Orangeville, Ontario.
To begin the second
quarter, the Canadians
roles were reversed. This
time, it was Palmer with
the well placed assist to
Benn, putting the Blue
Jays up by two, 3-1. As
if the two were connecting
on a different level at
this point, Benn assisted
Palmer nearly six minutes
later, pushing the
To begin conference play March 27 against Dickinson
lead to 4-2.
Later, Palmer weaved
through the Retriever
defense to find Lee Coppersmith,
a junior midfielder
from Boca Raton,
FL, for the Blue Jays' fifth
goal of the game.
Relative to earlier
in the game, the third
quarter started off rather
quietly for Palmer and
the Blue Jay offense. But
that changed nearly nine
minutes in when Palmer
once again led a Blue Jay
to the net, this time finding
junior attackman
John Kaestner.
Just under a minute
later, Palmer decided to
take one for himself and
score unassisted, nearly
putting the game out of
reach with
a 9-2 lead
in favor of
the Blue
Jays. Ten seconds
after
the unassisted
goal,
Palmer once
again connected
with
Benn for an
assist.
S h o r t l y
into the
fourth quarter,
Palmer
helped his
fourth teammate
of the
game, senior
m id f i e ld e r
Mark Goodrich,
with
his fifth assist
of the game. So all in
all, Palmer finished with
five assists and three goals
for eight total points. On
the season, this puts Palmer
at 10 goals, 15 assists and
25 points.
Palmer's early 2012 success
comes on the heels of
an impressive sophomore
season, in which Palmer led
Hopkins with 25 assists and
was second on the team in
points with 47, trailing only
senior attackman Chris Boland
who is currently out
with a collarbone injury. It
is numbers like these (and
many other sizable statistics
from teammates) that
have the Blue Jays off to
such a great start.
Palmer was unavailable
to comment.