While most Blue Jays were getting ready to fly the coop for spring break, the men of the Hopkins lacrosse team were hard at work, battling against Atlantic Coast Conference foes, the Syracuse University Orange and the University of Virginia Cavaliers. Driven to the brink on both occasions, the Jays split two overtime matchups, with a loss to the Orange and a victory over the Cavaliers. This brings their record to 5-3.
In a back-and-forth first quarter against the Orange, senior Wilkins Dismuke ripped a goal midway through the first quarter after a pass from sophomore attack Kyle Marr. Syracuse attack Nate Solomon scored an answering goal to bring it back to even. Junior Joel Tinney gave the lead back to Hopkins with only a few minutes left in the quarter, but midfielder Peter Dearth once again leveled the score for the Orange to close out the first quarter.
Dearth’s goal would spark a four-goal run for Syracuse into the third quarter. 17 shots whizzed by the net before Syracuse midfielder Sergio Salcido scored the only goal of the second quarter. The run for the Orange continued after halftime, entering the third quarter with points from midfielder Nick Mariano and Solomon to push the Syracuse lead to 5-2.
Just as they started off the first quarter for Hopkins, Marr connected with Dismuke, who notched his second goal of the day to end the 4-0 run for the visiting Orange and shorten the lead to three. Sophomore Robert Kuhn then provided the Jays with a goal to bring the deficit to two, closing out the third quarter.
The fourth quarter began with a Syracuse goal, but the Jays responded quickly, with a goal by Marr, who received help with a nice pass from junior Shack Stanwick, kicking off a three-goal run for the Jays. Sophomore Alex Concannon and Kuhn followed with goals to give Hopkins the 6-5 lead.
With 34 seconds left in the contest, Syracuse tied up the game and sent it into overtime where Syracuse midfielder Brendan Bomberry scored the game-winning goal in OT to secure the victory for the Orange.
A week later, the Jays returned to Homewood Field to face off against the Cavaliers in a game that was much more offensively successful than the game against the Orange.
Virginia came out of the gates firing, netting three goals to start off the contest, with midfielders Ryan Conrad and Dave Smith and attack Joe French all helping to ignite the Cavs to a 3-0 lead. Marr stopped the bleeding and put Hopkins on the board, but a goal from Cavalier attack Michael Kraus quickly put the deficit back at three.
The Blue Jays responded with two quick goals by junior Patrick Fraser and freshman Forry Smith. At the end of the first, Tinney responded to a Syracuse goal with one of his own to put the score at 5-4 in favor of the visiting Virginia team.
Virginia came out for the second quarter just as strong as the first, rattling off five goals, including one from Kraus, two from midfielder Dox Aitken and two from attack Mike D’Amario to put the Cavs up 10-4.
Undeterred, the Blue Jays responded with three straight goals of their own by Marr, Tinney and senior Cody Radziewicz. Senior John Crawley had the last goal of the second quarter, putting the score at 11-8, still in favor of the Cavs.
Virginia once again started off the next quarter with midfielder AJ Fish and Kraus scoring one goal apiece, but Hopkins scored the final three goals of the period, thanks to Concannon, Radziewicz and Marr.
It was the Jays who took over the momentum in the final quarter, scoring six goals interrupted by just one Virginia goal. The Jays saw goals from graduate student Craig Madarasz, three from Marr and one each from Tinney and Radziewicz.
Down 17-14 with less than two minutes to go, Virginia made a major push, scoring three goals, with attack Zed Williams scoring two and Conrad scoring the other to take the Jays into overtime for the second week in a row. Unlike the game against the Orange, however, it was Hopkins that came out on top, as Stanwick buried a goal two minutes into the first overtime period to give the Blue Jays the victory.
The Jays will run out onto Homewood again this Friday to take on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights to open up Big Ten Conference play at 7:00 p.m.
