As the rain poured down onto the field, the Blue Jays huddled at midfield.
Their opponents, decked in a familiar light blue, marched onto the field. Hopkins, fresh off of its second loss in as many games, had something to prove against No. 5 UNC. Underneath overcast skies, each goaltender jogged towards his respective goal, the players readied themselves for face-off, and the game began.
The Tar Heels put the first score on the board, as junior attackman Joey Sankey netted a goal that barely trickled past goalie Eric Schneider’s leg. Three minutes into the game, UNC had one shot and one goal – their efficiency became key throughout the game.
One minute later, junior attackman Wells Stanwick found himself behind the goal. He half spun to fool his defender, cut to the left side of the goal, dished it to freshman midfielder Cody Radziewicz who then found fellow freshman attackman John Crawley at the top of the box, who promptly tied the game at one. Eight seconds later, Hopkins had the momentum and the lead as senior midfielder Phil Castronova scored his first off of a critical face off win by junior Drew Kennedy.
A Blue Jay turnover on a failed clear allowed UNC to tie the game at two before Stanwick had a goal taken away for being in the crease. It would be another eight minutes until Stanwick redeemed himself on a diving shot that put Hopkins up 3-2.
With under a minute to play, Sankey scored his second of the game, foreshadowing what would be a dominant and career-best outing from the Tar Heel. Sophomore midfielder Holden Cattoni answered with a goal of his own to close out the first quarter with underdog Hopkins leading the way 4-3.
Kennedy was the story of the first half, as he won seven of his first eight face-offs, then proceeded to win all six of the second quarter.
His excellent face-off play would not stop Sankey, who assisted the first UNC goal of the second quarter to tie the game at four. After a diving save from Schneider a minute later, Cattoni once again answered Sankey to put Hopkins back up by one.
Stanwick then found senior attackman Brandon Benn twice in a row in a span of four minutes to put Hopkins up three. It would be the last goal the Jays scored for a while, as UNC put up one more before the half to bring the score to 7-5.
The third quarter proved to be disastrous for the Jays, as five different Tar Heels notched goals while the UNC defense held Hopkins scoreless. This was just the second time all season the Blue Jays failed to score in a regulation quarter of play.
Sophomore attackman Ryan Brown finally penetrated the UNC defense, scoring the first Hopkins goal in 23:20 to put his team down just 10-8. Then the craziness began.
With around 12 minutes remaining in the game, Sankey found himself behind the Blue Jay goal. He then perched himself there for just over two minutes, letting the clock run down as the referees refused to call a stall warning.
“I felt bad for our other five guys,” Sankey said. “Their job is to just keep moving and trying to get open. I think it’s Hopkins’ job to come behind the net. They were just hanging out in front of the goal. [UNC Head Coach Joe Breschi] talks about how the refs put an emphasis this year on how they have to come behind the cage. If we’re moving up top, it’s their job to come behind and our guys did a great job moving up top.”
When junior long stick midfielder Michael Pellegrino finally approached Sankey behind the goal, the Tar Heels worked the ball around until it found Sankey again, who promptly scored.
“I really couldn’t tell you how long it was going,” senior defenseman Jack Reilly said. “It felt very, very long. We kept thinking eventually something is going to happen. When the ball went up top, we all got our match-ups. It was a slide underneath and we didn’t have a two to support him. It’s very tough. You do a great job switching. We did everything we had practiced for in a situation like that and it was tough to give up a goal right there.”
Sankey followed that goal up with another to give himself a career high five on the day while tying his career high in points with seven. The teams then traded goals as the game came to a close with UNC on top, 13-9.
The Blue Jays would finish the game with just those nine goals on 40 shots, while UNC scored their 13 on just 29 shots. Once again, the Jays managed to turn the ball over more often than their opponents, 16-11.
“It was a tale of two halves,” Head Coach Dave Pietramala said. “We played very well in the first half. Not perfect by any sense of the imagination, but well enough to develop a lead. In the second half, we’re fighting a battle where we can’t get out of our own way. It’s too many mistakes. It’s not one guy. It’s a team thing. We’re just making too many errors and we’re making them at critical times. And when you do that against a good team, you can’t expect a positive outcome.”
Hopkins will look to turn things around as they play host to Albany this Friday night under the lights at Homewood Field. Albany will be coming to Baltimore with a 4-4 record, hoping for a similar result as last seasons game in which they bested the Blue Jays by a score of 10-9.
