The fourth ranked Hopkins men’s lacrosse team began their 2013 season with an emphatic, 15-6 win over the Siena College Saints this past Friday at Homewood Field.
On a drizzly and frigid February night, Hopkins lacrosse shook off the cold and burned through the Saints, generating 58 shots, the most in a single game since 2004 against Albany when the Blue Jays attempted 61 shots.
On Friday, the squad took at least ten shots a quarter, including a game-high 19 in the opening frame.
Thinking big-picture, this tremendous offensive output provides a glimpse into what the Blue Jays may be capable of come playoff time. Brand new rules set in place by the National Collegiate Athletic Association in hopes to help accelerate the pace of play by limiting substitutions on the fly and calling for quicker restarts, aids the offensively-talented squads’ philosophy.
After the victory head coach Dave Pietramala reflected on the ideal marriage between the new rules and his team's personal strengths.
“We have a team that is made up of guys where I think this favors our middies being able to get up and down,” he said. “We’ve got big, strong, athletic, North-South, downhill dodgers. Our attack is slick, crafty, they bang the ball around, and they can finish it—although I don’t think we did that very well tonight. In general, we think (the new rules) fit us well.”
Although Hopkins led only 6-4 at halftime, they seemed to grow more spirited as the game progressed, physically outworking their opponents. In the third quarter, junior Rex Sanders scored his first of two goals on the night and propelled an 8-1 Hopkins run that put the game well out of reach for the Saints.
Last season Hopkins was guilty of fading away in the fourth quarter and vowed a change to that trend this offseason by putting a greater emphasis on their cardiovascular conditioning.
“We’ve conditioned more than we ever have,” Pietramala said. "We’ve run more. We’ve turned away from lifting as much as we did and put more emphasis on the condition portion of things. And I’ll tell you that one of the things I’m most pleased with is, I thought we got stronger at the end of the game, and I think we wore them down a little bit. We’ve tried to take our most challenging drill and put it at the end of practice and put it after conditioning so that we would be more fatigued either trying to play six-on-six and having to communicate and handle the ball or we’ll take our most challenging transition drill and we’ll put that at the end of the practice.”
Senior midfielder John Greeley, who is returning from a torn ACL that sidelined him for most of his junior season, also remarked on the new rules and the faster pace of play.
“It’s been enjoyable,” he said. “A little bit of an adjustment for me. I’ve really had to work hard to kind of get my conditioning back up so that I can be out there and get the ball and go and not just hold it and look at the bench and try to get into something. So it’s been really enjoyable. We’ve been getting better and better each week in the preseason, and I’m excited to continue to work at it throughout the year.”
Captain and midfielder senior John Ranagan paced the team with four points on three goals and one assist.
After the game he explained the teams’ new emphasis on the fourth quarter.
"(Siena is) a really good team, and even at halftime, it was 6-4,” he said. “They were hanging in, and we've been talking this year about closing out games. That's been our fault at the end of the season, not closing things out, and we've been making it a point that we're going to finish things out this year."
Outside of Ranagan, Hopkins received three goals from junior Brandon Benn and two goals each from senior Lee Coppersmith, sophomore Wells Stanwick and Sanders.
Siena sophomore midfielder Conor Prunty did his best to keep Siena within reach by scoring a game-high four goals on the night.
However the Blue Jay’s vaunted defensive combo of senior captain Tucker Durkin and senior Chris Lightner shut down the Saints’ two best offensive players, Danny Martinsen (33 goals in 2012) and Colin Clive (31 goals in 2012).
"They're kind of the big guns," Saints coach John Svec remarked on Martinsen and Clive. "So you know they're going to be keyed on there. They don't know what we're running, and we don't know what they're running. It's the first game of the year. I don't think [Hopkins] did anything in particular. They're a good, solid defense."
Throughout the night, Hopkins reined supreme in every major statistical category, including ground balls (39-17), faceoffs (16-of-23) and turnovers (12-15).
Yet Pietramala acknowledged that there is still major areas that need improvement. “The place where I don’t think we played fast enough was in six-on-six situations,” he said. “And I don’t mean rush a shot. I just thought the ball at some times died in our attack’s sticks. I’ll be honest with you, I think our attack needs to perform better.”
Hopkins will seek to build on their early success as they travel to Towson this Saturday for their first road game of the season.
