Men's Lax dominate UMBC at M&T Bank

The second-ranked
Hopkins men's lacrosse
team continued its regular
season dominance with
a convincing 12-5 victory
over the UMBC Retrievers
this past Saturday afternoon.
The Jays made
the four-mile trek to M&T
Bank Stadium to play in
the sixth annual Konica
Minolta Face-Off Classic,
in front of a crowd of
17,138. Hopkins remained
perfect on the season, improving
their record to 6-0
behind the stellar play of
junior Zach Palmer and
sophomore Brandon Benn.
Palmer would score a career
high eight points and
Benn would chip in with
a hat trick of his own and
two assists.
The Jays and Retrievers
started off neck and neck for much of the first half,
with Hopkins maintaining
only a 3-2 lead midway
through the second quarter.
But Hopkins would rattle
off three straight goals
to finish the half and seven
consecutive unanswered
scores in total through the
third quarter to put UMBC
away for good and secure
the team's sixth win of the
season.
The Jays drew first
blood four and a half minutes
into the first quarter,
with an open Zach Palmer
on the crease taking an assist
from Benn and cashing
in to give the Jays the 1-0
advantage in the early going.
U
MBC would not back
down, however, responding
with an extra man goal
off of a pushing penalty
by junior midfielder John
Ranagan to even up the score at one apiece with
8:27 left in the first 15.
Exactly three minutes
later sophomore Rob Guida
would get in on the action
by scooping up a ground
ball and sprinting 40 yards
downfield, splitting the
defense and netting a goal
from five yards out to put
the Jays up for good, 2-1.
Despite their lead, Hopkins
played somewhat
sloppily in the early going,
committing three penalties
to UMBC's zero in the first
17 minutes of the game.
Late in the first half, UMBC
would squander a 3-on-1
opportunity but would get
a chance to redeem themselves
when a questionable
"illegal hit to the head"
call was enforced against
Hopkins. The call would
give the Retrievers extraman
strength, a situation
they would capitalize on to
close the gap to 3-2.
Hopkins would then
start a scoring spree and
never look back, with their
next goal coming at the 6:39
mark on a beautiful, 30-
yard cross-field assist from
Benn to Palmer who shot it
in from the right side of the
crease to make it 4-2.
Palmer would then
notch his second assist of
the day, feeding it to junior
Lee Coppersmith,
who would find the back
of the net to make the score
5-2. A Ranagan unassisted
goal with just under two
minutes to play would
cap the first half scoring,
as Hopkins would go into
halftime with a four-point
margin over UMBC.
The majority of the third
quarter would be a defensive
stalemate between
these two teams, with the
Jays being unable to capitalize
on an extra-man
advantage off of UMBC's
first penalty of the game
midway through the quarter.
They would get a second
chance, however, and
would make the most of it
this time, with senior John
Kaestner receiving a pass
from Palmer and rocketing
one home on extra-man
strength with 3:29 left in
the third.
Just 21 seconds of
game time later, Kaestner
would find Benn at
the top of the key on a
five yard assist, and Benn
would score another,
making the score 8-2.
In one of the highlights
of the game, a dropped
save by Retrievers goalie
Adam Cohen would give
Palmer the opportunity to
dive in from the top of the
crease and scoop the ball
into the goal in one motion
to extend the lead to
seven goals.
Another Palmer to
Benn combo would net
the Jays their tenth score
of the game, capping a torrid
four-goal run in a 1:21
span.
UMBC would break
it's scoreless streak as the
fourth quarter began, netting
its first goal in the
second half with 14:26
remaining in the game.
Amazingly, the score was
the first even-strength goal
the Jays' defense had given
up in 116 minutes and 37
seconds of game time.
Hopkins and UMBC
would trade scores from
then on, with UMBC scoring
three and senior Mark
Goodrich and Ranagan
tallying two more scores
to make the final score 12-
5. After the game, coach
Pietramala would laud his
teams three-quarter performance,
telling the media,
"I'm glad we didn't
allow what could have
happened to happen. . .I'm
glad we could play well
with a lead."
Although his team held
a comfortable lead for most
of the game, Pietramala did
express disappointment in
the team's fourth quarter
performance where the
Blue Jays were out-scored
3-2 by the Retrievers.
Pietramala would later
recognize the potent combo
of attackers Palmer and
Benn, saying, "We got two
guys we think are pretty
good. . .they've started to
develop some really nice
chemistry, they seem to
really enjoy playing with
each other."
Upon learning of Palmer's
career-high 8-point
performance, Pietramala
looked over to Palmer with
an impressed look on his
face, saying "That's pretty
good," to which Palmer
would respond, "Our offense
was playing well, getting
to the right spots, I was
just lucky enough to be in
the right spot a few times."
Pietramala would address
upcoming opponent
Syracuse, acknowledging
the difficulty the Jays
would face in beating the
sixth-ranked Orange. Last
season's match-up against
Syracuse ended in a thrilling
4-5 double-overtime
loss for the Jays. This season's
game will undoubtedly
be a challenging test
for Hopkins. Knowing
that, Pietramala expressed
gratitude that the team
would have their first full
week of practice in a while.
The Jays face off against
the Orange at 4 pm on Saturday
at Homewood Field.