M. Lacrosse making strides with offense and face-offs

After a comfortable 12-6
win against Towson was
followed by a very tight 8-6
victory against Delaware,
the Hopkins men's lacrosse
team looked to find more
consistency against Siena
College this past Saturday
at Homewood Field.
Hopkins opened with a
great first quarter, dominating
time of possession
against the Saints en route
to a 3-1 lead through the
first 15 minutes. With team
captain and senior Chris
Boland out due to injury at
the attack position, freshman
Wells Stanwick took
his place next to sophomores
Zack Palmer and
Brandon Benn. The freshman
fit right in, scoring
the opening goal less than
a minute into the game to
bring the Hopkins student
section to their feet.
Following the stellar
first quarter in which the
Blue Jays won all five faceoffs
and took a 10-to-4 advantage
in ground balls,
Hopkins came out for the
second quarter looking
like a different team. But
not in a good way.
From the start, play was
sloppy on both ends of the
field. Perhaps from the cold,
the wind or some combination
of both, several times
the Blue Jays committed
uncharacteristic mental errors,
such as dropped passes
or missed stick checks.
Junior defenseman
Chris Lightner said the Siena
offense, "Has a lot of really
skilled players and they
were really able to move the
ball around and capitalize
on their opportunities."
Overall, the second
quarter statistics were
completely different from
the first. Siena went threeof-
four on face-offs while
forcing seven Hopkins
turnovers, using those opportunities
to cut the Blue
Jay lead to 4-3.
Despite the poor second
quarter, junior goalie
Pierce Bassett and junior
defenseman Tucker Durkin
provided two bright
spots for the team. Bassett
made several difficult
saves off his feet, frustrating
Siena shooters and
maintaining the Blue Jay
lead, while Durkin looked
unbeatable, routinely stripping
his man and pounding
up-field for a clear.
After a halftime that
seemed like an eternity for
fans sitting in the ice-cold
bleachers, the two teams
were back for more in the
third. Hopkins opened the
scoring with a play that
will be talked about for
weeks. During a Siena clear
attempt, Hopkins' Palmer
picked off an errant Siena
pass at midfield. With Siena
goalie Tom Morr out
of goal during the clear,
Palmer fired a one-skip
shot from 50 yards away
that found the empty net.
Not only did the goal elicit
a raucous round of the
Hopkins fight song from
the stands, it had the entire
Blue Jay sideline jumping
with excitement.
From there, the two
teams traded goals to give
Hopkins a 6-5 lead entering
the final frame.
While the first three
quarters saw a relatively
consistent pace of play with
no team truly pulling away
from the other, the fourth
was a different story. Hopkins
used the first five minutes
of the quarter to separate
themselves from Siena
off of goals from Palmer
and Benn. Junior midfielder
Lee Coppersmith's goal
with eight minutes to go
ended up being the final
tally of the game, giving
Hopkins the 9-5 win.
When asked about the
difference between the
first three quarters and the
last quarter, Lightner said,
"We just locked it down in
the fourth knowing it was
crunch time."
The biggest positive
coming from the game
may have been the team's
success at face-offs. The
coaching staff turned to
junior Mike Poppleton for
the job, and his line-mates'
hustle was key in allowing
Hopkins to win most of the
draws. Head coach Dave Pietramala
liked the effort he
saw from his faceoff group.
"Mike Poppleton and
[freshman] Drew Kennedy
have made strides. Now
the key is they continue to
make strides."
Offensively, the loss
of Boland did not seem
to be much of an issue, at
least on the playing field.
While his leadership will
most certainly be missed,
Stanwick stepped in admirably
for the sixth year senior.
In fact, the entire unit
stepped up in a big way to
lead the offense with five
of the team's nine goals.
Pietramala praised the job
of offensive coordinator
Bobby Benson.
"[Coach Benson was]
working four or five guys
in there because, when you
lose a guy like Chris, it's
not one guy that's replacing
him."
On the defensive end,
through three games the
Blue Jays have been among
the stingiest teams in the
nation. Anchored by Bassett,
Durkin, Lightner and
senior Gavin Crisafulli, the
team has allowed only 17
goals all season. Furthermore,
by moving former
starting close defenseman
sophomore Jack Reilly up to
long stick midfield, Pietramala
has solidified an area
some considered a question
mark during the preseason.
On Friday night, Hopkins
heads up to New Jersey
to take on the Princeton
Tigers. The game
will match two of the best
defenses in the nation in
what will surely be a very
tight contest.