On Saturday, Feb. 20, the Blue Jays lacrosse team took on the Loyola University Greyhounds.
Heading into the contest, the Jays were ranked sixth by the media and seventh in the coaches’ poll. The Greyhounds were the eighth-ranked team by both measures.
Heading into this top-10 matchup of Maryland schools, the Jays and the Greyhounds both entered the game at 1-0, with opening season victories over Navy and University of Virginia, respectively.
The hometown rivalry lived up to the hype, as almost 5,000 fans filled the Ridley Athletic Complex. Under head coach Dave Pietramala, the Jays have won over 85 percent of their games against teams within the state. But unfortunately, Saturday afternoon was not one of those occasions.
The Jays were unable to overcome a rough first half, and the Greyhounds came away with the extra goal in a 9-8 victory. Coming off a six-goal effort against Navy and being named the Big Ten Men’s Lacrosse Offensive Player of the Week, senior attackman Ryan Brown sparked the Jays’ offense with two goals early on, but never scored again.
The Jays certainly did not make it easy though as they drew the deficit to just one point on four separate occasions in the second half. Freshman Kyle Marr and junior John Crawley each added two goals to give the Jays some momentum down the stretch, but the late rally was not enough to overcome the 5-2 halftime deficit.
“It felt good to contribute for the team when we were down,” Marr said. “I think we started to get more into a rhythm as the game went on and got some good looks at the end of the game, [but we] just weren’t able to finish a few times.”
Marr scored his first and second career goals in Saturday’s matchup.
Although the all-time record still stands at 47-6 favoring the Jays, the Greyhounds achieved three straight victories before the teams’ 53rd meeting. Following the loss, Coach Pietramala said the outcome simply came down to making too many mistakes that the opposition was able to capitalize on. Freshman defender Patrick Foley, one of the many new faces in this year’s starting lineup, agreed.
“We played far from perfect lacrosse on Saturday,” Foley said, “and it being our second game into the season, we are still working to improve in every aspect of the game. We found ourselves playing too much defense in the first half in particular and Loyola took advantage of some of those opportunities. To this point, our biggest opponent is ourselves.”
Other new starters this season include sophomore Brock Turnbaugh in goal, graduate student Ben Kellar and freshman Drew Supinksi at midfield.
Only two games deep, the Jays understand that it is still early and recognize where they can improve.
“Every team is improving and making adjustments at this point in the year, working to find that coherent bond between players and coaches to make each team successful,” Foley said. “Our team is getting better every week so we will work hard to prepare for UNC and build off the result.”
The Jays will look to get back on track this Sunday against North Carolina for the beginning of a four-game home stand. “We need to bounce back from the Loyola loss and take the information we gained from that game and learn from it,” Foley said. “We will have some extra motivation with it being our first home game and determination to reenter the winning column but our preparation and hard work this week will be the deciding factor on the outcome.”
The contest is slated for Homewood Field at noon, and Hopkins will get home field advantage for the first time since last season.
“I think we just need to come out with more intensity and play for a full 60 minutes, not just a half like we did against Loyola,” Marr said.
Marr and his teammates have lots of preparing to do if they want a win this Sunday.
