In the 52nd edition of the Battle of Charles Street, the visiting ninth-ranked Hopkins men’s lacrosse team was unable to repeat the magic from last year’s overtime victory. Falling for the seventh time in the rivalry’s history, the Blue Jays were taken down by the No. 14 Loyola University Maryland Greyhounds 12-5.
Playing in front of a crowd of 4,074 in the stands and over 193,000 watching the game online, the Greyhounds struck first, putting Loyola up 1-0 through a goal from midfielder Jay Drapeau.
The Blue Jays were able to even the score to one apiece, closing the gap just four minutes later, thanks to senior midfielder Brinton Valis, who took a pass from sophomore attacker Cole Williams to find the back of the cage.
Freshman Aidan Olmstead would help the Hounds reclaim the lead by finding Drapeau in front of the net. Drapeau launched a shot that found its way past the Blue Jays’ senior goalie Brock Turnbaugh. Midfielder Jared Mintzlaff would follow up to extend the Loyola lead to two with an unassisted strike before the first quarter ended.
Just eight seconds into the second quarter, Hopkins was able to cut the lead back down to one as senior midfielder Hunter Moreland took the opening faceoff, driving through the Loyola defense to find the mesh and putting the score at 3-2.
Loyola’s Alex McGovern would respond just two minutes later, with the midfielder scoring an unassisted goal of his own to bring the lead back to two. Capitalizing off of a tripping penalty against the Jays’ senior midfielder Tal Bruno, Loyola’s midfielder Brian Begley notched an assist, finding attacker Pat Spencer near the Hopkins net and giving the Hounds a 5-2 lead.
Looking to get some momentum in the closing minutes of the first half, senior midfielder Joel Tinney connected with his junior counterpart Alex Concannon to close the lead to two once again. Senior attacker Shack Stanwick would add another goal as the Blue Jays headed into the locker room down 5-4.
Despite ending the first half with some energy in their favor, the Blue Jays were unable to hold back the offensive attack of the Hounds, as Loyola would go on a 7-1 run in the second half.
“I hadn’t seen that from our team all spring long. I thought that we were really organized and extremely disciplined, and we were all of those things but tonight. We were not organized, and we were not disciplined,” head coach Dave Pietramala said in a post-game press conference.
The run was kicked off just a minute and a half into the third quarter when Olmstead picked up his first goal of the season, burying an unassisted strike in the back of the Hopkins net. Junior John Duffy would score twice for the Hounds, with Begley scoring an unassisted goal of his own in between. The Greyhounds took their lead to 9-4.
The Blue Jays tried to stop the bleeding, although only temporarily, when Moreland won the face-off and connected with freshman defender Jared Reinson, whose shot beat Loyola’s goalie Jacob Stover. The goal marked Reinson’s first goal for the Jays and cut the score to 9-5 at the close of the third quarter.
The final 15 minutes would be all Greyhounds. Drapeau would complete his hat trick just 32 seconds into the fourth quarter, and Spencer would grab a hat trick of assists when his pass to McGovern resulted in yet another Loyola goal. The final nail in the coffin would come when Begley found the mesh for the second time that day on an unassisted goal, which would be the final change to the scoreboard. The Hounds would walk away victorious, 12-5.
“You can’t beat a team like that when you’re going offsides. You can’t beat a team like that when you’re turning the ball over. How many times did we get stops and give them second chances? You can’t give a team like that second chances,” Pietramala said. “They’re too good of a team.”
Tinney attributed the loss to a disconnect between the ideas practiced during the week leading up to the game and the team’s execution when it came to the actual game on Saturday.
“I thought when we came out, we were a little helter-skelter when it came to their pressure. We knew it was coming, but we didn’t exactly execute on our end and do what we did in practice,” Tinney said. “Today was a lot different than how we prepared all week, and it shows a lack of understanding of what’s coming on Saturday versus throughout the week from our part.”
The Jays will need to quickly repair the disconnect between the practices leading up to each game and the execution in the game itself. The Jays have one of the toughest schedules in the country, and the Big Ten conference is full of very competitive teams that can challenge the Jays.
Even though they were dominant in the face-off circle, winning 14 of 20, Hopkins was unable to combat the 22 turnovers they gave up compared to Loyola’s 14. Forcing so many turnovers worked well in the Hounds’ favor, as they bested the Jays in shots 40-32 and capitalized on two of their six extra-man opportunities; Hopkins was unsuccessful in all five of their man-up chances.
“There are things to build off of. I thought our man-down was excellent. I thought we got good goaltending, and I thought our guy at the face-off X did a good job,” Pietramala said. “There were good individual performances, and we’re going to find a way to build off of those and find a way to be more disciplined.”
The loss knocks Hopkins down to 1-1 in the season, while Loyola picked up their first win in their 1-1 season. The Blue Jays will be back in action on Friday, Feb. 23 as they host the University of North Carolina Tar Heels. The opening faceoff will be at 5 p.m., and those who can’t make the game can catch it on ESPNU.
Correction: In an earlier version of this article it incorrectly stated that men’s lacrosse has lost to Loyola five times. They have actually lost seven times.
The News-Letter regrets this error.
