Men's Lax rides strong defense to 5-0 start

The second-ranked
men's lacrosse team held
off a late surge by the 12thranked
Princeton Tigers on
Friday, besting them 10-8,
before shutting out Manhattan
at home, on Tuesday,
11-0. Hopkins remains unbeaten
and improved their
record to 5-0. Hopkins has
now won 12 straight regular
season games dating
back to last year.
Against their Ivy
League foe,
the Jays held
a relatively
comfortable
lead late in
the game,
despite Tiger
advantages
in shots taken,
36-to-29,
and ground
balls won,
31-to-24.
The Jays
scored 10
goals on the
strength of
a balanced
attack with
eight Hopkins
players
notching
scores
on the day.
Senior midfielder
Mark
G o o d r i c h
and junior
at t ac k m a n
John Kaestner
stood out, tallying two
goals apiece.
Kaestner was making
his first career start after
starting attackman Wells
Stanwick was lost to injury.
Part way through the
first quarter, a Hopkins
penalty gave the Tigers
an extra-man opportunity.
Junior Tucker Shanley took
advantage of it, finding the
net for his fifth goal of the
season. The Jays responded,
however, firing off
three unanswered goals.
Goodrich set the tone with
a quick-stick, no hesitation
goal off a dish from junior
attackman Zach Palmer.
Soon after, Palmer got
in on the scoring himself,
notching an 18-footer to
the back of the net. Sophomore
midfielder Rob Guida
then added his third goal
of the season to extend the
Blue Jay lead to 3-1.
Just eight minutes after
Princeton had scored its
first goal of the game, Hopkins
roared back to take a
two-goal advantage that
they would not relinquish.
Princeton whittled the
score to a one goal game
with just 15 seconds remaining
in the first quarter,
as junior Jeff Froccaro
squeezed one past junior
goalie Pierce Bassett on
what was the last shot for
the Tigers in the first half.
The second quarter remained
scoreless until just
less than five minutes remained
in the half. Palmer
notched his second assist
on a goal from junior midfielder
John Greeley. Fellow
junior midfielder John
Ranagan would cap the
Jays' first half scoring with
a score at the 2:03 mark.
The Hopkins defense absolutely stifled the Tigers'
attack in the second
quarter, holding them to
zero shot attempts, as the
Jays went into halftime
with a 5-2 advantage.
Goodrich continued his
strong showing with an
unassisted eight-yarder
midway through the third
quarter to give the Jays a
four-goal lead, 6-2. Princeton
answered with two
straight goals in the final
five minutes of the quarter,
one from junior Forest
Sonnenfeldt and the other
from senior Mike Grossman
with just seven seconds
left in the period.
Kaestner ignited the
fourth quarter Hopkins offense
with an impossibly
angled score from behind
the goal to give the Jays a 7-4
lead with just under 13 minutes
remaining. Tiger senior
Alex Capretta responded
three minutes later with a
score of his own to keep the
Hopkins lead at two, but the
Jays answered with three
shots past Princeton senior
goalie Tyler Fiorito to give
Hopkins a 10-5 lead with
6:38 left on the clock.
The first of these goals
came on a rocket shot from
sophomore attackman Brandon
Benn from the high slot
to extend the lead to three
goals. The second was tallied
just a minute-and-a-half
later, with Kaestner recording
his second score of the
game off of a short drop-off
from Ranagan.
Junior attackman Lee
Coppersmith found the
top corner of the net off of
Palmer's third and final assist
of the day to finish the
Hopkins scoring fest.
Princeton attempted a
comeback in the closing
minutes of the game, as
Froccaro scored again with
six minutes left to cut the
lead to four goals. A huge
save by Bassett highlighted
the tense and scoreless
next four minutes, however,
stopping the Tigers
from clawing their way
back in the game.
Still, Princeton's relentless
rally continued. Grossman
netted one more with
two minutes left on the
clock, and sophomore Tom
Schrieber juked through
the defense to find the net a minute later.
For the next 60 seconds,
though, the Hopkins defense
remained steadfast to
seal the impressive victory
- their first over a ranked
opponent this year.
On Tuesday, the Blue
Jays hoped to continue
their winning streak and
keep their perfect record
in-tact, as they returned
home to face the Jaspers of
Manhattan.
Against the Jaspers,
Hopkins' perfect record
looked to be in jeopardy
as Manhattan managed to
shut down the Blue Jay offense
for the first 11 minutes
to the tune of a 0-0 tie.
However, at the 11:35
mark, Guida opened the
floodgates with his fourth
goal of the season to give
Hopkins a 1-0 lead. From
there, two goals by Greeley
and goals from Kaestner
and junior midfielder Lee
Coppersmith in the final
two minutes of the first
quarter put the Blue Jays
ahead 5-0.
The rest of the game
played out much like the
first, with spurts of offense
from the Blue Jays
intermixed with periods of
scoring droughts.
Two Hopkins goals in
the second, followed by
four in the third and a
scoreless fourth brought
the final score to an 11-0
Blue Jays victory.
By game's end, Greeley
had picked up his second
career hat-trick, while fellow
first-line midfielder
Ranagan tallied a goal and
an assist for two points.
After a slow start to
the season, the highly
touted midfield unit finally
produced points in
the last two games. While
the group managed only
11 goals in the team's first
three games, against Princeton
and Manhattan the
midfielders broke through
with 14 of the teams 21
goals, carrying an offense
that recently suffered a
string of injuries to several
key players.
At the attack position,
Kaestner once again shined
in only his second career
start, recording a goal and
an assist. Despite being
the fifth attackman on the depth chart, the junior was
forced to start after senior
Chris Boland and freshman
Wells Stanwick were
lost to injury earlier in the
year.
The story of the day was
the play of the defense.
While Bassett seemed to
struggle with the Princeton
shooters on Friday, giving
up a season high eight
goals, Tuesday's game
against the Jaspers was an
entirely different story.
With the help of a total
team defensive effort, Bassett
stopped all seven shots
he faced while the Blue
Jays as a team allowed only
14 shots total.
All told, the 11-0 win
was the team's first shutout
since 1988, a 9-0 victory
against Princeton.
Coincidentally, current
head coach Dave Pietramala
and associate head coach
Bill Dwan were both members
of that 1988 squad.
Hopkins will return
to action this Saturday at
M&T Bank Stadium, home
of the Baltimore Ravens,
in the Konica Minolta
Face-Off Classic. The
sixth annual Inner Harbor
classic will feature
some of college lacrosse's
top squads and will conclude
with Hopkins' 4
PM match with UMBC.
The matches preceding
the Blue Jays': at 11 AM,
Princeton will take on the
eighth-ranked Tar Heels
of North Carolina, and at
1:30 PM, top-ranked Virginia
and third-ranked
Cornell will clash.
The Jays will next be
on Homewood Field the
following Saturday, Mar.
17th, against sixth-ranked
Syracuse in what should be
one of Hopkins' toughest
tests of the year.