After opening the season with five straight victories, the Blue Jays did something they had not done since last season: lost. A week later, it was more of the same. Hopkins has now dropped two straight, beginning on March 15 against Syracuse.
The game began on a high note, as sophomore attackman Ryan Brown helped the Jays grab an early lead with his first goal of what would turn out to be a career game. However, the Orange responded with three goals of their own to close out the first quarter. The Blue Jays would have to play from an unfortunate place: behind.
“I have faith in our team,” junior defenseman John Kelly said. “I know when we get down, we have the ability to come back. I didn’t really feel any extra pressure when we fell behind.”
Unfortunately, things did not turn around so easily. Brown scored again 14 seconds into the second quarter, but after trading goals, Syracuse scored three in a row once again. Hopkins would enter the half down 7-3.
The second half brought the Blue Jays a little hope, as Brown tallied a hat trick in the first six minutes of the third quarter to put the Jays down by one. Just as quickly as Hopkins entered striking distance, the Orange pulled away again, with another string of three straight goals to close out the third.
Facing a 10-6 deficit, Brown once again came out firing and tallied a second hat trick, this one in just three minutes of play. Down 10-9 with 13 minutes left to play, the Jays had the momentum.
After a Syracuse score, sophomore midfielder Holden Cattoni responded with one of his own to cut the Syracuse lead to 11-10. Seven minutes would pass before the Orange scored the game’s final goal and secured the 12-10 victory.
“In a lot of ways we kind of beat ourselves,” Kelly said. “Syracuse is a great team and I’m not taking anything away from them, but we didn’t make plays when we needed to make them. We made a lot of bad mistakes and they made us pay for it.”
Brown would finish the game with eight goals, just one shy of the Hopkins single game record of nine. Despite Brown’s outstanding play, the Jays fell from No. 2 to No. 9 in the country after the loss. However, there was no time to sulk.
“After the game everyone was upset, but really we had to move on because we had Virginia next,” Brown said. “There wasn’t really much time to sulk about the loss because we had that big one against Virginia the next week.”
The Virginia game started out poorly, as the Cavaliers jumped out to an early 3-0 lead. However, the Blue Jays clawed back, scoring four of the next five goals, including two from Cattoni.
Entering the second quarter tied at four, the teams traded goals twice, with senior attackman Brandon Benn and freshman attackman John Crawley scoring one apiece. Then, with 38 seconds remaining in the half and the score tied at six, Brown notched his first of the game to give the Jays their first lead.
“We felt pretty good,” Kelly said. “We just had to clean some things up a little bit, but we were feeling pretty good going into the half.”
The teams traded goals twice more in the third quarter, with scores coming from Brown and Benn within the first 11 minutes. The Jays would enter the fourth quarter still up one and with their work cut out for them.
Scoring began just 15 seconds into the fourth on a goal from Brown, who was recently added to the Tewaarton Watch List for his exceptional play. He joins junior attackman Wells Stanwick as the two Blue Jay representatives on the 10-person list.
Brown’s goal, however, would not be enough to hold Virginia back.
“I think if we got the lead out to three, it would have been a little bit harder for Virginia to come back,” Brown said.
Unfortunately, the Cavaliers answered with two goals of their own to tie the game at 10 and force overtime. With 1:09 left on the clock in overtime, the Cavaliers punched one through and handed the Jays their second loss in as many weeks.
“It was tough,” Kelly said. “I don’t think there’s anything much worse than losing in overtime. You’re so close and you’re right there.”
Benn and Brown would finish the game with three goals each, while captain Rob Guida tallied a team-high four assists and goalie Eric Schneider had eight saves.
Despite the loss, Kelly believes the team can fix a few key mistakes and come back much stronger.
“We felt like we were right there,” Kelly said. “We felt like we played harder than we did against Syracuse but we still weren’t executing as well as we could. Once we clean up these mistakes — once we tighten up defensively — we’ll be a really tough team to beat.”
The Jays will be put to the test this Saturday against 5th seeded North Carolina at Homewood Field. Brown thinks the team can put an end to the losing streak and get back on track.
“I think we came out fired up after the last two,” Brown said. “I think you’re going to see a good deal of excitement from our team and I think we’re going to come out and execute and get the win.”
