Coming off a loss against Ohio State University last week, the Hopkins men’s lacrosse team traveled to Ann Arbor, Mich. for Big 10 conference action against the University of Michigan Wolverines.
Perhaps shaking off some rust from last week’s game, the Jays found themselves in an early hole, down 3-1 after the first period.
After an unassisted goal by Michigan attackman Michael Boehm, the Jays still trailed by two goals around the start of the second period. However, this 4-2 Michigan lead would be the last time the Wolverines had a lead, as the Jays hit their stride at this point.
Junior star attackman Joey Epstein started the offensive surge by scoring three goals in a span of just over four minutes, with two of them being unassisted.
Before the second period’s end, Jays graduate student midfielder Cole Williams added in another goal, capping the Jays’ 4-0 run. A last-second Michigan goal by midfielder Avery Myers put the score at 6-5 at the half, but the Jays were far from finished with their output on both ends of the field.
In the first minute of the third period, senior midfielder Jack Keogh launched a shot to find the back of the net. A few minutes later, sophomore Jacob Angelus found senior Connor DeSimone for another Hopkins goal.
Senior midfielder Brett Baskin went solo for his first goal of the game. Then in the final four minutes of the third period, Hopkins put up three more goals.
Williams assisted another goal by DeSimone. Keogh racked up two assists of his own, first finding junior Garrett Degnon and then Angelus to put Hopkins up 12-5.
In the final period, Epstein landed the final blows with two more goals, with both being assisted by DeSimone. The defense held tight after not allowing a single goal in the third period, only allowing two in the second half.
Thanks to the offensive and defensive rallies, the Jays came up with the win over the Wolverines with a score of 14-7.
Epstein led all scorers for the day with six goals, one shy of his personal record of goals in a game. Several other Jays had career performances as well.
DeSimone notched six points, while Angelus and Keogh had four and three points, respectively. Degnon continues his streak of goal scoring, now having scored in the last eight games.
The victory also extends the Blue Jays’ undefeated streak against Michigan, as the Jays are now 8-0 all-time against their conference counterparts.
Following the first win of the season, head coach Pete Milliman shared his thoughts about the game with Hopkinssports.com.
“Good team win for the guys. [They] played hard certainly, but [we] need to find a way to start better and finish better,” Milliman said. “I thought the play in the middle was great. Some pivotal ground balls, clearing the ball well. We had some good face-off play and really some disciplined offense and defense.”
Milliman continued with how the team changed its approach after losing its opener.
“We changed a little bit from last week to this week and tried to simplify some things a little bit. I think it benefitted us,” Milliman said.
With a 1-1 record, the Jays will look to add another win in the column when they travel to College Park, Md. to play the University of Maryland Terrapins on March 6.
