This past Saturday, the Hopkins men’s lacrosse team played its second game in two weeks in front of the home crowd at Homewood Field. In a decidedly different turn of events from the nail-biter of a loss to Princeton the previous week, the Jays breezed by the Naval Academy in a 13-8 victory. Head Coach Dave Pietramala’s squad never trailed once during the contest, and battled its way back to a .500 record on the season at 3-3.
Leading the charge in the win were the Stanwick brothers, senior midfielder Wells Stanwick and freshman midfielder Shack Stanwick, who were recently named the Big Ten Player and Freshman of the Week, respectively. The two together accounted for six goals and four assists on the day.
The No. 17 Jays worked themselves into the polar opposite position from the Princeton game, in which they accumulated a 7-0 deficit to begin, starting the game with a flurry of goals that gave them as much as an 8-1 lead with six minutes left in the first half.
Junior midfielder Connor Reed initiated the day’s offense, drawing first blood with an unassisted strike two minutes into the game. By the end of the first quarter, three other players had gotten in on the scoring for the Jays: Shack Stanwick, sophomore midfielder Kieran Eissler and junior attackman Ryan Brown.
The elder Stanwick fed the younger on the game’s second score, one of two Stanwick-to-Stanwick connections on the day. Eissler’s unassisted score and then a straightaway laser from Brown followed. Eleven seconds later, Brown struck again on a dish from sophomore midfielder John Crawley, good for his 21st goal on the season.
A total of six different players scored for the Jays in the first half, continuing a pattern of offensive explosion that has manifested itself in most of the team’s contests this season.
“All week in practice we focused on the importance of coming out of the gate fast,” Crawley said regarding the explosive offensive start to the game. “Even Friday we simulated going in to the locker room after stretching, and the stick work we do before the game and coming out with a different warm up to try and get our feet under us early. The coaches did a great job focusing on the importance of playing a full 60 minutes.”
The Midshipmen tried to seize back momentum going in to the half as Navy’s freshman attackman Jack Ray bullied his way into the crease to net Navy’s second goal.
His goal was followed by a strike from junior Patrick Keena barely over a minute later.
Coming out of the locker room, the Jays made sure to extinguish any Navy momentum as Shack Stanwick took a bounce pass from fellow freshman Joel Tinney then scored on an open net. Tinney scored one of his two goals just 10 seconds later immediately following a Hopkins faceoff win.
After another Stanwick-to-Stanwick connection, this time with Wells on the scoring end, the Midshipmen began to show some signs of resurgence. The visiting team dominated the third quarter’s final nine minutes and tallied four goals from as many different players to cut the deficit in half from eight goals to four.
However, it was to no avail as the Jays put whatever hopes Navy had for a comeback to bed on back-to-back strikes from Tinney and Wells Stanwick.
Hopkins senior goalie Eric Schneider helped keep the Midshipmen at bay with a standout fourth quarter that saw him log six saves.
Jack Ray’s second goal of the day was too little too late for Navy as the horn sounded to end the game.
The Jays will hit the road next week and look forward to playing the unbeaten Syracuse Orange who are ranked No. 1 in the nation.
“We are all real excited to play against such a good team and program in Syracuse,” Crawley said.
The Jays men’s lacrosse team will next return to Homewood Field on March 21 in an evening bout against the University of Virginia Cavaliers.
