On a dark and overcast Saturday afternoon, the Hopkins men’s lacrosse team received a strong performance from their starters to earn a 17-8 win over an energetic Michigan squad.
Senior Mike Poppleton won 17 of his 18 face-offs to help improve the Blue Jays to a 3-0 record in the first ever meeting between Hopkins and the Michigan Wolverines.
Head coach Dave Pietramala complimented the young Wolverine program.
“They’ve come along way. They have some big, strong athletes. They talk about playing Big 10 lacrosse. It’s great for our sport that they made the move into Division I, and it was an honor for us here to play against a great institution like Michigan.”
The Wolverines came to Homewood Field ready to play, striking first to take an early 1-0 lead. Michigan’s passionate bench immediately and enthusiastically celebrated, relishing in Hopkins’s initially sloppy play. Despite being a relatively young program, it was evident that Michigan was unafraid of the legendary Blue Jay tradition. Wolverine freshman Mike Hernandez delivered a vicious hit in the opening minutes that warranted an obvious penalty.
The Blue Jays responded to the early score, going on an 8-0 run to remove any suspense from the game. Poppleton had extremely high expectations saying,
“It was real exciting going into the game. We treat every game the same. Nothing different, high expectations, that remains constant.”
During the onslaught, freshman Ryan Brown scored on an extra man advantage. Rex Sanders was then assisted by senior John Greeley. Greely created the opportunity, utilizing a shifty shake-and-bake move that would make some top running backs jealous.
During the run, junior Brandon Benn scored all three of his goals in a shooting spree that took less than 13 minutes. Six different Blue Jays scored during the scoring extravaganza, an effort that would allow Hopkins to hold at least a six goal lead for the rest of the game. Poppleton’s dominance on faceoffs gave Hopkins an unlimited number of opportunities throughout the game. The senior went undefeated on all 14 of his faceoffs in the first half while also adding 12 ground balls. Even with different defenses thrown his way, the senior never diverted from his strengths.
“They threw a bunch of guys that kept me guessing. I felt comfortable, I was doing my thing, so I wasn’t trying to focus too much on them.” The 17 victorious faceoffs are the second most in Poppleton’s career.
In the second half, the Wolverines made a little run of their own as freshmen Dan Kinek and David Joseph found the back of the net. The Blue Jays quickly recovered as their nearly impenetrable defense held Michigan to only one goal in the next 23 minutes. During the second and third quarters goalie Pierce Bassett recorded eight of his 10 saves.
In the second half, five different players contributed to Hopkins six goals including senior attackman John Kaestner who knotted two scores. Over the course of the game senior Zach Palmer led an even scoring attack with two goals and three assists. Both Benn and and Kaestner added four-point efforts for Hopkins. The Blue Jays had seven different players record multi-goal games while there was also eight players who registered two points or more.
For Michigan, Kyle Jackson and Peter Kraus carried the team with two goals apiece. Freshman David Joseph added one goal and one assist. The fiery young midfielder did his best to keep Michigan in the game.
“It’s essential to stay positive, we’re not getting as many wins in the face off as we’d like. It’s important to possess the ball and take advantage of our limited opportunities.”
Many of the young players enjoyed the opportunity to play Hopkins. Not only did they get a chance to go against some of the nations’ best, but it was an opportunity to play in storied Homewood Field.
“It was a great experience, a lot of fun. I really enjoyed seeing how I stacked up against the top players in the country.” Joseph went on to add, “Playing at Homewood Field was really cool. We wanted to stay focused, but appreciate where we were. Great feel, great atmosphere, great game.”
In only their second year in NCAA Division I competition, the young team showed a great deal of promise. A physical team littered with 19 freshman and 10 sophomores has the potential to be a dominant force in the coming years. Their goalie, freshman Gerald Logan, secured 12 saves for Michigan, but even his best efforts could not stop the overwhelming possession disadvantage.
“Communicating a lot, who’s going, who’s not, communication on our slide packages was especially important as the game progressed,” Logan said.
Despite dealing with a shoulder injury, the Wolverine made sure to keep his packs’ spirits high. “I was a little disappointed that I was injured but I just made sure to keep everybody up and keep fighting through it.”
Hopkins takes the field again on Friday, March 1st when Princeton travels to Homewood Field for a 5 p.m. faceoff. Palmer commented on the upcoming match-up saying,
“We’re really excited for Princeton, not thinking ahead. First real big one of the year so I think we’re all looking forward to it.”
The #14 Tigers will present the Blue Jays their first real test in this promising young season. Regardless, Pietramala will have his troops ready.
“We need to have a good week of practice. Our bad decisions will get punished a little more against a team like Princeton. We’re going to be challenged so we’ll need to play a lot better than we did today to be successful on Friday night.”
