The start of Conference play is always an exciting time in the world of sports. As the 13th-ranked Hopkins men’s lacrosse team took to Homewood Field to begin Big Ten Conference play against the visiting No. 7 Rutgers University Scarlet Knights, the Blue Jays looked to carry the momentum of last week’s comeback victory against the University of Virginia. The Blue Jays did just that, as they started off Big Ten play with a 12-6 victory.
The Blue Jays dominated the shot totals in the first quarter, firing at the net 16 times compared to only four shots from Rutgers.
The stark difference in the number of shots also reflected on the scoreboard, as the Jays led 4-1 after 15 minutes of play. Sophomore Kyle Marr started the Hopkins tear in what would eventually be a five-goal game when he buried an unassisted goal barely two minutes into the start of play.
Less than a minute later, Marr and the Blue Jays were on the board again with an assist from senior midfielder Kieran Eissler.
Junior Shack Stanwick continued the run for the Blue Jays when senior Wilkins Dismuke fed Stanwick for the third straight Hopkins goal. Marr secured a hat trick with the help of senior Cody Radziewicz to put the Jays up by four before Rutgers’ Kieran Mullins answered with a goal of his own. With just seconds left on the clock, he put the Scarlet Knights on the board before the end of the first quarter.
Starting the second quarter just as they did the first, Stanwick swung the momentum quickly back to Hopkins not even a minute into the second quarter.
Just four minutes later, it was Stanwick’s pass that gave Radziewicz the opportunity to put the Blue Jays up 6-1 as Radziewicz garnered his second point of the day.
Rutgers midfielder Jeff George put the Scarlet Knights back on the board again to narrow the deficit to four. After seven scoreless minutes by both teams, it was Scarlet Knights attack Connor Murphy who ended the scoreless silence that almost took up half of the second for the Scarlet Knights.
Just 30 seconds later, Stanwick matched Marr’s hat trick as the junior’s goal put the game at 7-3 as both teams went to the locker room for halftime.
The Blue Jays once again started the scoring in the third quarter, with senior midfielder John Crawley netting one six minutes into the second half, his 13th of the season. Kieran Mullins matched his earlier goal for Rutgers by assisting on two straight, one of which was scored by Josh Jordan and the other by Connor Murphy.
Stanwick closed out the third quarter just as he had the second quarter, burying a shot that found the mesh and put the Jays up 9-5.
Following up on Stanwick’s goal to close out the third, Radziewicz’s goal put the Blue Jays onto the board to begin the fourth quarter. Sophomore Alex Concannon’s nifty assist to Marr gave Marr his fourth goal of the game and gave the Blue Jays an 11-5 lead.
Murphy put one last shot in for Rutgers to bring the game to 11-6, but Marr once again found the mesh in the final minutes of the bout, his fifth time in the game, to secure the Hopkins victory at 12-6 in favor of the home team, the Blue Jays.
Marr’s five goals this week and five goals last week makes him the first Blue Jay since Ryan Brown in 2015 to record back-to-back five-goal games.
The victory for the Blue Jays improves their record to 6-3 overall and 1-0 in the Big Ten Conference, whereas Rutgers’ loss puts the Scarlet Knights at 8-2, with an 0-1 record in the Big Ten.
Hopkins will be in action next on April 9, where they will continue Big Ten play as they challenge the Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus, Ohio in front of a nationally televised audience on the Big Ten Network.
