It was a rough outing for the Hopkins men’s lacrosse team this past Saturday. Travelling to New Jersey to take on the Princeton Tigers, the Blue Jays struggled to get rolling while the Tigers quickly pounced on the teetering Jays.
Junior Austin Sims shifted the momentum early on in favor of the Tigers, scoring twice in less than two minutes, while freshman Michael Sowers followed suit, tossing in another goal to extend the Princeton lead to three within the first seven minutes of the game.
In need of a spark, the Jays managed to score twice within 60 seconds thanks to efforts by senior Austin Spencer and freshman Forry Smith. Stirring up some momentum, the Jays would trail the Tigers 3-2 as they ended the first quarter.
Unfortunately for the Jays, Princeton quickly crushed their hopes of sparking a potential comeback. Sowers buried a goal, followed by Sims, who scored his third of the day. Senior Gavin McBride then notched two goals for Princeton within just 30 seconds of each other.
After tallying four goals in just a four-minute span halfway through the second quarter, the Tigers were suddenly up 7-2.
In a punishing mood after their loss to the Hofstra Pride the previous week, Princeton went on to bury three more goals. Sims scored his fourth goal of the day, and junior Riley Thompson and sophomore Charlie Durbin added one apiece before the buzzer sounded for halftime.
The Tigers scored on 7-17 shots, while the Jays were unable to capitalize on any opportunity in the second quarter, going 0-10 and pushing their deficit to eight, as they headed into the locker room down 10-2.
The Tigers came out of the half just as dominant as they were from the start, firmly taking control of the game and capturing three more goals over the visiting Jays.
Sims capitalized just 45 seconds into the third quarter for his fifth goal of the contest to bring the score to 11-2. Senior Adam Hardej then found the net, followed by Durbin, who scored his second of the day to increase the Princeton lead to double digits.
Hopkins reduced the lead back to 10 when senior attack Wilkins Dismuke buried a goal off of a rebound, the first goal the Jays were able to muster since Smith’s goal in the first quarter.
Still, the Jays could not stop Sims from finding the net. He went on to score his sixth and final goal for the Tigers midway through the third quarter, a career high for the junior.
Both teams would score once more before the end of the third quarter, putting the game at 16-4 going into the fourth. Three minutes into the final quarter, sophomore attack Kyle Marr notched a goal for the Blue Jays. Seven goalless minutes later, junior attack Shack Stanwick scored his eighth goal of the season, putting the game at 16-6.
Junior midfielder Brinton Valis would round out the scoring for the day, scoring at the tail end of the game for the Jays to finalize the score at 18-7.
The loss ends the Jays’ four-game win streak that began the season, while the Tigers improved their record to 3-1. The Blue Jays dropped from No. 3 to No. 6 in the NCAA rankings.
The Blue Jays will travel across Baltimore to face off against the Towson University Tigers this Saturday afternoon.
There, they will look to avenge their devastating loss to Princeton and prove that it was nothing more than a speed bump.
With Conference play starting in three games, it will be important for the Jays to be firing on all cylinders in order to maximize their playoff chances.
