Top-Ranked Johns Hopkins Slips Past Second-Ranked Virginia, 9-7 In Men's Lacrosse
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March 26, 2005
BALTIMORE, MD — Johns Hopkins sophomore goalie Jesse Schwartzman (Owings Mills, MD/Pikesville) posted a career-high 20 saves and freshman attackman Kevin Huntley (Towson, MD/Calvert Hall) scored all three of his goals in a six-minute span in the fourth quarter to lift the Blue Jays to a 9-7 victory over second-ranked Virginia in front of 8,321 fans at Homewood Field Saturday afternoon. The win, the 30th straight at home for Johns Hopkins, improves the Blue Jays’ record to 5-0. Virginia had its six-game winning streak snapped and falls to 6-1.
With the Blue Jays clinging to a 6-5 lead at the end of the third quarter, Huntley scored the first of his three goals at the 12:08 mark of the fourth quarter off an assist from senior Peter LeSueur (Garden City, NY/Garden City). After Virginia’s Matt Ward (Oakton, VA/Landon) drew the Cavaliers to within 7-6 with his game-high fourth goal of the game on a nifty drive from the side of the goal off a feed from Drew Thompson (Northport, NY/Northport), Huntley gave the Blue Jays the breathing room they needed with two goals just 70 seconds apart. He picked the low corner of the near post off a feed from LeSueur for an extra man goal and then rolled inside of his defender and beat Cavalier goalie Kip Turner (Severna Park, MD/Severn) from in close to make it 9-6. Kyle Dixon (Millersville, MD/Archbishop Spalding) made it 9-7 with an extra-man goal with 19 seconds remaining, but the Blue Jays won the ensuing faceoff and ran out the clock.
If Huntley was the story of the fourth quarter, then Schwartzman was the story early as he registered seven of his 20 saves in the first quarter. Despite being outshot 10-8 in the opening stanza the Blue Jays built a 3-0 lead in the first 15 minutes as Schwartzman’s play on the defensive end fueled a quick start by the offense. Freshman midfielder Paul Rabil (Gaithersburg, MD/DeMatha) staked the Blue Jays to a quick 2-0 lead as he tallied back-to-back unassisted goals just three minutes apart midway through the opening quarter. Senior Greg Raymond (Corning, NY/Corning East) netted the first goal of his career with 4:40 remaining in the first period as he raced the length of the field after a Cavalier turnover and fired high shot past Turner.
Virginia made its inevitable run in the second quarter as the Cavaliers outscored the Blue Jays, 4-1 in the period to make it a 4-4 game at the half. Ward’s unassisted goal at the 12:49 mark was answered by Jake Byrne’s (Potomac, MD/Landon) extra-man goal for the Blue Jays at the 8:28 mark, but the ‘Hoos scored the final three goals of the first half – all in a span of just 3:03 – to pull even. Matt Poskay (Clark, NJ/A.L. Johnson) ignited the spree with his 14th goal of the season with 5:50 remaining in the period before Ward and freshman Ben Rubeor (Towson, MD/Loyola) scored to force the only tie of the game.
Huntley, who had assisted on Byrne’s extra-man goal earlier in the game, found LeSueur eight yards in front of the goal early in the third quarter and LeSueur made a nifty spin move before beating Turner high to the stick side. Senior midfielder Kyle Harrison (Baltimore, MD/Friends) pushed the lead to 7-5 with an unassisted goal at the 7:57 mark before Ward scored his third goal of the game with 4:29 remaining in the third quarter to make it 6-5. That set the stage for Huntley’s fourth-quarter heroics, which were matched by Schwartzman, who posted six saves in the final period to help nail down the Blue Jays’ 24th win in the their last 25 regular season games.
Ward led Virginia with his four goals and one assist, while Brendan Gill (Lutherville, MD/St, Paul’s) added a pair of assists. No other Virginia player registered more than one point as the Cavaliers were held to nearly half of their scoring average. Virginia entered the game averaging 13.7 goals per game. Turner registered five saves and Jack deVilliers (Lutherville, MD/St. Paul’s) won 9-of-19 faceoffs and had five ground balls against the Blue Jays’ four-man faceoff rotation.
Huntley led the Blue Jays with his three goals and two assists, while Rabil added the two goals and LeSueur chipped in with the one goal and two assists. Schwartzman easily surpassed his previous career high of 10 saves.
Johns Hopkins will return to action next Saturday when the Blue Jays play at North Carolina. Virginia will host ACC rival Maryland next Saturday at 3:00 pm.
#2 Virginia (6-1) 0-4-1-2/7#1 Johns Hopkins (5-0) 3-1-2-3/9
Goals: V: Ward-4, Dixon, Rubeor, Poskay. J: Huntley-3, Rabil-2,
LeSueur, Harrison, Byrne, Raymond. Assists: V:Gill-2, Ward, Thompson. J: Huntley-2, LeSueur-2. Saves: V: Turner-5.
J: Schwarztman-20. EMO: V: 1-for-2. J: 2-for-5.
Attendance: 8,321.