CHAPEL HILL, NC – R.G. Keenan scored his only goal of the game six seconds into overtime to lift the sixth-ranked North Caorlina men’s lacrosse team to a dramatic 11-10 win over eighth-ranked Johns Hopkins at, appropriately, Kenan Stadium, Saturday afternoon. Keenan’s goal gave the Tar Heels the win in a game they never trailed until the last five minutes of regulation, but tied late to force extra time.

The Blue Jays took their only lead of the game with 4:36 remaining in regulation when senior John Greeley capped a long possession by getting to the middle of the field and beating North Carolina goalie Kieran Burke from 10 yards out to make it 10-9.

The Tar Heels, playing from behind for the first time in the game, got the equalizer with 90 seconds left on the clock when Chad Tutton drove from the top of the box and found Davey Emala on the doorstep. Emala turned and shoveled a shot past Pierce Bassett to force the fourth tie of the game.

Johns Hopkins won the ensuing faceoff and had possession for the final 1:23 out of a timeout, but the Tar Heel defense kept the Blue Jays away and never allowed a clean look at the goal to force overtime. There, Keenan took over to lift the ‘Heels to their fourth consecutive victory.

The frantic ending seemed almost appropriate in a game that Carolina led by three goals once and two goals four different times, only to have the Blue Jays fight back each time.

After Emala and Ryan Brown traded goals in the first four minutes of the game, the Tar Heels grabbed the momentum with a three-goal run late in the first quarter to grab a 4-1 lead.

Sophomore Joey Sankey used a pick along the goal line to get topside on his defender and rifled home an eight-yard shot to make it 2-1 and Marcus Holman and Emala scored goals just 30 seconds apart to make it 4-1.

After the Tar Heel defense forced a turnover, Holman scored in transition and Emala went backdoor on his defender and took a perfect feed from Tutton just off the crease and scored to give UNC the three-goal lead.

The Blue Jays sliced the deficit to 4-2 late in the first quarter as junior Brandon Benn blew home a 10-yarder while the Blue Jays had the man advantage and Lee Coppersmith broke a long scoring drought for both teams when he dodged down the ally and ripped a 12-yard shot to make it 4-3.

The Blue Jays nearly tied the game late in the second quarter, but Burke made two of his 10 first-half saves on the doorstep in a span of three seconds and UNC took off in transition, where Holman again made them pay with a 12-yard blast that accounted for a 5-3 score at the half.

A back-and-forth third quarter saw the Blue Jays pull to within one twice in the first six minutes, only to have the Tar Heels answer each time with Tutton giving UNC the third of its four two-goal leads with an unassisted strike with 8:45 remaining that made it 7-5.

Hopkins finally drew even at 7-7 on John Ranagan and Zach Palmer goals just 51 seconds apart midway through the quarter, but a Ryan Creighton goal late in the period and the only goal of the game by sophomore Jimmy Bitter gave the Tar Heels a 9-7 lead early in the fourth.

As it had all day, Johns Hopkins rallied. Brown’s second goal of the game – from in-tight on a nice feed to the crease by Palmer –made it 9-8 with 12:34 remaining and Palmer went upstairs with a left-handed laser to draw the Blue Jays even with just under eight minutes on the clock.

That score held for more than three minutes before Greeley gave JHU its only lead of the game in the final five minutes, a lead Emala wiped away late, setting the stage for Keenan’s overtime heroics.

Palmer led the Blue Jays with three goals and one assist, while Coppersmith (2g, 1a), Brown (2g), Greeley (1g, 1a) and Wells Stanwick (2a) also registered multi-point games for JHU. Johns Hopkins held advantages in shots (48-37) and faceoffs (13-11) and got eight saves from Bassett in goal.

Emala matched Palmer’s three-goal effort and Holman (2g, 2a) and Sankey (2g) both added multi-goal games for the Tar Heels, who also got 12 saves in goal from Burke. Keenan won 11-of-24 faceoffs, grabbed five ground balls and end it with his second goal of the season.

#8 Johns Hopkins (6-3) 2-1-4-3-0/10
#6 North Carolina (7-3) 4-1-3-2-1/11

Goals: J: Palmer-3, Coppersmith-2, Brown-2, Greeley, Benn, Ranagan. N:Emala-3, Holman-2, Sankey-2, Tutton, Bitter, Keenan, Creighton. Assists: J: Stanwick-2, Coppersmith, Greeley, Palmer. N: Holman-2, Kilpatrick-2, Tutton-2. Saves: J: Bassett-8. N: Burke-12. Shots: J-48. N-37. EMO: J: 1-for-3. N: 0-for-3. Attendance: 5,922.

Television:  ESPNU

The Game: Eighth-ranked Johns Hopkins (6-2) heads south to take on sixth-ranked North Carolina (6-3) in a key mid-season game.

A Look Back: Johns Hopkins picked up a key victory last Saturday as the Blue Jays topped Virginia, 15-8, in the Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic. North Carolina has picked up two wins in the last week as the Tar Heels upset top-ranked Maryland, 10-8, last Saturday and beat Brown, 18-12, on Wednesday night.

Series History: Johns Hopkins and North Carolina are meeting for the 42nd time in a series that dates to a 16-9 Johns Hopkins win in 1977. The Blue Jays lead the all-time series 24-17, although the Tar Heels have won five of the last six.

These are the Facts: Johns Hopkins enters this week’s game against North Carolina with an all-time record of 930-300-15 (.753). The Blue Jays own nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 44 national championships.

That’s 103 Games Over .500: Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala picked up his 167th career win when JHU knocked off Virginia last week and he now stands at 167-64 overall. Included in that mark is a 144-47 record at JHU and a 23-17 record in three seasons as the head coach at Cornell.
Pietramala ranks second all-time in school history in career coaching victories as only Hall of Fame coach Bob Scott (158 wins from 1955-74) has more victories than Pietramala while patrolling the sidelines at Homewood.

Must be the Speech: There must be something to what Johns Hopkins head coachDave Pietramala says in the locker room that sparks the Blue Jays as Johns Hopkins holds decided scoring advantages in the first and third quarters through eight games. JHU has outscored the opposition 32-14 in the first quarter and 28-17 in the third. By contrast, the Blue Jays hold just a 23-15 scoring margin in the second quarter and an 24-22 advantage in the second quarter.

Balancing Act: Johns Hopkins counts eight players with five or more goals and 10 players with seven or more points through eight games. In all, 18 different players have found the back of the net for JHU and 21 players have at least one point.

The Key to Victory – Part I: With last week’s 15-8 win over Virginia, Johns Hopkins improved to 6-0 on the year when scoring in double figures. The Blue Jays are 0-2 when scoring fewer than 10 goals.

The Key to Victory – Part II: Johns Hopkins improved to 6-0 on the year when holding the opposition to less than 10 goals. On the flip side, JHU is 0-2 when allowing 10 goals or more.

EMO Clicking: The Johns Hopkins extra man unit has been on a roll of late as the group is 13-of-21 (.619) in the last four games and is now 21-of-38 (.553) on the year. Johns Hopkins currently ranks third in the nation in man-up offense Seven different players have scored at least one extra man goal for the Blue Jays with freshmanRyan Brown (8), sophomore Wells Stanwick (4) and junior Brandon Benn (3) leading the way. Brown’s eight extra man goals are already the most by a Johns Hopkins player since 2004, when Matt Rewkowski had 12 andConor Ford had eight.

Stanwick Breaks Out: Sophomore attackman Wells Stanwick continued his offensive roll last week against Virginia as he scored three goals and added one assist, the same totals he punched up at Syracuse the week before. He now has four straight games with four or more points to his credit and has accumulated 23 points in his last four games.
Stanwick boosted his totals to 18 goals and 13 assists on the year with his effort against UVA and he has already surpassed his goal (9) and point (23) totals from last season. He currently ranks ninth in the nation in points per game (4.43). Stanwick enjoyed the finest game of his career in the 19-9 win over Mount St. Mary’s as he totaled five goals and four assists for nine points. Previously he had never had more than two goals, three assists or four points in a game.
He followed that with a two-goal, four-assist effort in the win over UMBC and then added the three-goal, one-assist performance at SU.
Stanwick is the first Johns Hopkins player to post nine points in a game since Kyle Barrie had five goals and four assists in a 17-3 win over Navy in 2003. He is also the first JHU player with back-to-back six-point games since Dan Denihan did it against Villanova (8), Ohio State (6) and Maryland (7) during the 2000 season.

Poppleton Rolls On: With a 14-of-23 performance at Syracuse and a 4-of-6 effort against Virginia, senior faceoff specialist Mike Poppleton continued his strong work at the X for the Blue Jays.
Poppleton, who ranks first in the nation in faceoff winning percentage, is now 100-of-141 (.709) on the year and leads the team with 55 ground balls. He also improved to 290-of-451 (.645) in his career with his showing last week against Virginia.

Benn Leads Team in Goals: Junior Brandon Benn continues to pace the team in goals (20) and ranks second in points (21) after scoring once against Virginia last week. He has scored 50 of his 55 career goals since the start of the 2012 season and currently ranks eighth in the nation in goals per game (2.86).

Cattoni Emerging: Freshman Holden Cattoni played in two of the Blue Jays’ first three games, but didn’t register a point in those two outings.
That changed quickly as the hard-shooting lefty punched up back-to-back two-point games against Princeton and Mount St. Mary’s. He fired home a pair of goals against the Tigers and added one goal and one assist against the Mount. He scored an extra man goal against Syracuse and added one goal and one assist last week vs. Virginia and now has five goals and two assists for seven points on the year.

What Brown Does For Us: Freshman Ryan Brown has stepped in and made an immediate impact for the Blue Jays in his first year at Homewood. Brown has 11 goals and four assists through eight games and leads the team with eight extra-man goals. He has registered at least one point in seven of eight games this season and his eight extra-man goals are already the most by a Johns Hopkins player since 2004, when Matt Rewkowski (12) andConor Ford (8) led a potent JHU extra man unit.
Brown fired home the first hat trick of his career and added an assist for a career-high four points in last week’s 15-8 win over Virginia and now has five multi-point and three multi-goal games to his credit.

Sanders Breaks Through: Junior midfielder Rex Sanders entered the 2013 season with one career goal to his credit. He has already far surpassed that total as he has scored 11 goals through eight games. Sanders is tied for third on the team in goals (11) and tied for sixth in points (11) after punching up the first hat trick of his career last week against Virginia.

Bassett Shines Against Virginia, Among National Win Leaders: Senior Pierce Bassett enjoyed his finest game of the season last week against Virginia as he posted 16 saves and allowed just seven goals in 59:02. The 16 saves are tied for the second-highest total of his career.
Bassett currently boasts a .591 save percentage and an 8.18 goals against average. He ranks 13th in the nation in goals against average and fifth in save percentage. His 16-save performance boosted his career total to 433 saves, which moved him into a tie with Michael Gvozden for eighth place on JHU’s career saves list (433).
Bassett also enters this week’s game at North Carolina ranked second among active Division I goalies in career wins after picking up career win number 33 against UVA.

Durkin Fuels Defense: Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala has the luxury of returning the nation’s top defensive player in senior co-captain Tucker Durkin, who has picked up right where he left off a year ago.
Durkin currently ranks third on the team in ground balls (18) and leads the team with 10 caused turnovers. Durkin is the anchor of a Johns Hopkins defense that ranks 15th nationally in scoring defense (8.50).

Scoring Droughts Abound: Despite the new rules in place this season that aim to quicken the pace (and thus increase scoring), the Johns Hopkins defense has been able to hold the opposition scoreless for long stretches this season. The Blue Jays held Virginia scoreless for a stretch of 31:25 midway through the game last week and Siena, Towson and Michigan each drew blanks of at least 15 minutes – all three had two droughts that lasted at least 13 minutes. Princeton was more productive in its win against JHU, but did have one scoring drought that covered more than 11 minutes, while Mount St. Mary’s went more than 18 minutes without a goal at one point and UMBC was held off the board for 24:04 to open the game and 13:01 later in the game.

State Rivalries: Without question the Blue Jays play one of the most difficult schedules in the nation and a big part of the schedule are the in-state rivalries the Blue Jays have. Including the recent win against UMBC, JHU is 59-7 (.894) against teams from Maryland under head coach Dave Pietramala.

Poll Position: The Blue Jays are ranked eighth in this week’s USILA Coaches Poll and 10th in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll as well. The Johns Hopkins Athletic Communications Office uses the USILA Poll to represent JHU’s official ranking at the time of a game. Prior to falling out of the top 20 of the USILA Poll on April 26 and May 3, 2010 (JHU was receiving votes in both polls), the Blue Jays had been ranked in the top 20 in 367 consecutive polls dating back to the first poll in 1973.

More Poll Position: Including this week’s USILA Poll, there have been 403 weekly polls since the inception of the poll in 1973. Amazingly, JHU has been ranked in the top 20 in 401 of those 403 polls. The Blue Jays have been in the top 10 in 380 of the 403 and the top five in 299 of those 402. Johns Hopkins has been ranked number one 104 times since the poll debuted in 1973.

Palmer Among Career Active Assists Leaders: Senior attackman Zach Palmer enters this week’s game at North Carolina with 67 career assists. He currently ranks 13h among all active Division I players in career assists.

I’m Honored: The Blue Jays return four players who earned All-America honors last season in seniors Tucker Durkin, Pierce Bassett and John Ranagan and junior Rob Guida. Durkin earned First Team All-America honors on defense, while Ranagan and Guida grabbed second team honors at midfield. Bassett earned honorable mention honors in goal and he, Durkin and Ranagan are two-time All-America selections for the Blue Jays.

Odd, But True: Years ending in “3″ have been kind, and unkind, to the Blue Jays. Since the formation of the NCAA Tournament in 1971, Johns Hopkins has advanced to the NCAA Championship game three times (1973, 1983, 2003) and the NCAA Semifinals once (1993) in the years ending in three. JHU fell in each of those three title games with the three loses coming by a total of four goals. In each of those instances the Blue Jays subsequently won a national championship within two years.

Representing the Stars and Stripes – Part I: Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala will serve as an assistant coach for the United States at at the 2014 Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Championships in Denver Colorado. Pietramala will serve under Richie Meade, the head coach at Navy from 1995-2011.

Representing the Stars and Stripes – Part II: Johns Hopkins sophomore defender Rob Enright was a member of the United States Team that won the 2012 FIL U-19 World Championship in Turku, Finland. Enright is the 17th Johns Hopkins player to represent the United States at the U-19 Championships since the formation of the event in 1988.

Working Overtime: The Blue Jays have won their last three overtime games dating back to the 2011 season and are 19-9 all-time in overtime under head coach Dave Pietramala.

Streaking: In case you didn’t notice, Johns Hopkins is 26-7 in its last 33 games and 31-9 since the start of the 2011 season.

BALTIMORE, MD – One week after struggling to find a rhythm on both ends of the field, the 10th-ranked Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse team found its stride early in Saturday’s game against 14th-ranked Virginia and posted its most impressive win of the season as the Blue Jays raced past the Cavaliers, 15-8, in the second game of the Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic. Hopkins used a 9-0 run and held UVA scoreless for more than 31 minutes to fuel its third straight win in the series and return the Doyle Smith Cup to Homewood.

The Blue Jays (6-2) led 2-1 midway through the first quarter after Brandon Benn and Mike Poppleton scored goals just three seconds apart and Mark Cockerton answered less than 90 seconds later for Virginia. When the Cavaliers finally found the net again with less than six minutes remaining in the third quarter, the Blue Jays had stretched the 2-1 lead to 11-1.

Entering the game with 63% of its goals having been assisted, the Blue Jays won their individual battles during the game-deciding run as the first six goals in the spree were unassisted.

Sophomore Wells Stanwick and freshman Ryan Brown tallied first-quarter goals in the final 6:17 to push the lead to 4-1 and Lee Coppersmith and Drew Kennedy added strikes just four seconds apart before the second quarter was four minutes old to push the led to 6-1. A slow developing transition goal by Phil Castronova made it 7-1 and it looked like that score might hold until the half, but JHU struck twice in a seven-second span in the final minute of the second quarter to carry a 9-1 lead into the break.

Any hopes for a Virginia (5-4) comeback were dashed early in the third quarter when Stanwick completed his hat trick and Sanders added his second strike in a span of just 44 seconds to complete the 9-0 run and give JHU an 11-1 lead – the largest Johns Hopkins has held against Virginia since 1995, when the then second-ranked Blue Jays beat top-ranked Virginia, 22-13, at Homewood Field.

The Cavaliers, who were just 1-of-20 shooting in the first half, found their stride offensively late in the third quarter as a Nick O’Reilly strike and back-to-back goals by Cockerton trimmed the deficit to 11-4. Holden Cattoni’s opportunistic goal with 27 seconds left in the period made it 12-4 and Cockerton scored again just nine seconds later to make it 12-5 entering the final period.

The teams combined for six goals – three each – in the final 8:57 of the game to account for the 15-8 final. Charlie Streep scored two of Virginia’s three goals in the period, while Brown scored twice and Sanders once to complete their first career hat tricks for the Blue Jays.

Stanwick make it four straight games with four or more points as he added an assist to his three goals, while Brown added one assist to his three goals as well for a career-high four points. Sanders’ three goals boost his season total to 11 after he entered the season with just one in his first two years combined. In all, nine different players scored goals for JHU, which scored on 15 of its 44 shots. The Blue Jays were particularly sharp in the second quarter, when they scored on 5-of-12 shots; Virginia was 0-for-13 in that period as JHU took control.

While the 15 goals grabbed the headlines, the play of senior goalie Pierce Bassett was also strong. Bassett posted 16 saves – tied for the second-highest total of his career – including seven in the first half when Hopkins built its lead.

Cockerton, who entered the game ranked third nationally in goals per game, led the Cavaliers with four goals, while Streep scored twice and O’Reilly added two assist to his one goal. Virginia held advantages in shots (52-44), ground balls (32-30) and faceoffs (14-13), but the early Hopkins run was more than it could overcome.

#14 Virginia (5-4) 1-0-4-3/8
#10 Johns Hopkins (6-2) 4-5-3-3/15

Goals: V: Cockerton-4, Streep-2, O’Reilly, Emery. J: Stanwick-3, Sanders-3, Brown-3, Cattoni, Benn, Coppersmith, Poppleton, Kennedy, Castronova. Assists: V: O’Reilly-2, Van Arsdale, Harbeson. J: Brown, Cattoni, Greeley, Pellegrino, Stanwick. Saves: V: Heller-13. J: Bassett-16, Schneider-0. Shots: V-52. J-44. EMO: V: 1-for-3. J: 1-for-3. Attendance: 10,487.

Television:  ESPNU

The Game: Johns Hopkins (5-2) makes the 4.5-mile trip to downtown Baltimore and M&T Bank Stadium as the Blue Jays take on Virginia (5-3) in the second game of Inside Lacrosse’s Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic. Game time is tentatively set for 4:30 pm on Saturday, March 23. The JHU-UVA game will follow the Navy-Colgate game.

A Look Back: Johns Hopkins slipped to 5-2 with a 13-8 loss at Syracuse last Saturday. Virginia dropped its second straight one-goal game as the Cavs fell to Ohio State, 11-10, at home.

Series History: Johns Hopkins and Virginia are meeting for the 86th time in a series that dates to a 9-0 JHU victory in 1904. The Blue Jays lead the series 56-28-1 and have won two straight against the Cavaliers.

Playing for the Cup: The winner of this week’s game between Johns Hopkins and Virginia will be presented with the Doyle Smith Cup, which goes to the winner of the annual regular season game between the two teams.

Doyle Smith arrived at Johns Hopkins from Corvallis, Oregon in 1962 and served as the manager of the lacrosse team throughout his tenure at Homewood. He graduated from Johns Hopkins Phi Beta Kappa and worked under the guidance of Hall of Fame coach Bob Scott before moving to the University of Virginia, where he served as the Director of Media Relations for the men’s lacrosse program for 30 years.

Doyle’s devotion to the sport of men’s lacrosse was remarkable. He served as the information director for the USILA for many years and was the official statistician at the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championships for over two decades. He also was responsible for the standardization and accuracy of men’s lacrosse statistics and became the face and voice of the USILA during his time at Virginia. In 2000, he became the first non-player, non-coach to be inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

By a joint acclimation between Johns Hopkins University and the University of Virginia, it was established during the 2006 season that the regular-season game contested between the Blue Jays and the Cavaliers be known as the game for the Doyle Smith Cup.

These are the Facts: Johns Hopkins enters this week’s game against Virginia with an all-time record of 929-300-15 (.753). The Blue Jays own nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 44 national championships.

In the Face-Off Classic: Johns Hopkins is the only team to have played in every Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic since the event was formed in 2007. JHU will carry a 4-2 all-time record in the Face-Off Classic into this week’s game against Virginia. Below is a list of JHU’s all-time FOC results:

2007 – Princeton • W/7-6 (OT)
2008 – Princeton • W/14-9
2009 – Princeton • L/8-14
2010 – Princeton • L/10-11 (OT)
2011 – UMBC • W/16-5
2012 – UMBC • W/12-5

At M&T Bank Stadium: This week’s game against Virginia will be the 14th Johns Hopkins has played at M&T Bank Stadium. The Blue Jays are 8-5 all-time at the home of the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens.

JHU won all three of its games at M&T in 2007, including a 7-6 double-overtime win against Princeon in the Face-Off Classic and a 12-11 win against Duke in the NCAA Championship game. After dropping two of their first three games at M&T Bank Stadium in 2003 and 2004, the Blue Jays have won seven of their last 10 here. The 13 games JHU has played here have been equal parts nail-biter and equal parts blowout. Six of the 13 have been decided by two goals or less (including five one-goal affairs) and seven have been decided by five goals or more.

All-Time in NFL Stadiums: In addition to playing 13 previous games at M&T Bank Stadium, JHU has played seven other games in NFL stadiums in its history. JHU is 12-8 all-time in NFL stadiums with the 13 games at M&T accounting for 60% of the 20 all-time games in these stadiums. Below is a breakdown of JHU’s all-time record in the five different NFL venues the Blue Jays have played in:

M&T Bank Stadium (2003-04, 2007-) • 8-5
Lincoln Financial Field (2005) • 2-0
Gilette Stadium (2008) • 1-1
Met Life Stadium (2010-11) • 1-1
Houston Astrodome (1971) • 0-1

That’s 102 Games Over .500: Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala picked up his 166th career win when JHU knocked off UMBC and he now stands at 166-64 overall. Included in that mark is a 143-47 record at JHU and a 23-17 record in three seasons as the head coach at Cornell.
Pietramala ranks second all-time in school history in career coaching victories as only Hall of Fame coach Bob Scott (158 wins from 1955-74) has more victories than Pietramala while patrolling the sidelines at Homewood.

Must be the Speech: There must be something to what Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala says in the locker room that sparks the Blue Jays as Johns Hopkins holds decided scoring advantages in the first and third quarters through seven games. JHU has outscored the opposition 28-13 in the first quarter and 25-13 in the third. By contrast, the Blue Jays hold just a 21-19 scoring margin in the fourth quarter and an 18-15 advantage in the second quarter.

Balancing Act: Johns Hopkins counts eight players with four or more goals and 10 players with four or more points through seven games. In all, 17 different players have found the back of the net for JHU and 20 players have at least one point.

EMO Clicking: The Johns Hopkins extra man unit connected on 5-of-6 chances against Mount St. Mary’s, 4-of-6 against UMBC, 3-of-6 against Syracuse and is now 20-of-35 (.571) on the year. Johns Hopkins currently ranks third in the nation in man-up offense.
Seven different players have scored at least one extra man goal for the Blue Jays with freshman Ryan Brown(7), sophomore Wells Stankwick (4) and junior Brandon Benn (3) leading the way. Brown’s seven extra man goals are already the most by a Johns Hopkins player since 2004, when Matt Rewkowski has 12 and Conor Fordhad eight.

Stanwick Breaks Out: Sophomore attackman Wells Stanwick continued his offensive roll at Syracuse as he scored three goals and had one assist against the Orange. Stanwick boosted his totals to 15 goals and 12 assists on the year with his effort at SU and he has already surpassed his goal (9) and point (23) totals from last season.
Stanwick enjoyed the finest game of his career in the 19-9 win over Mount St. Mary’s as he totaled five goals and four assists for nine points. Previously he had never had more than two goals, three assists or four points in a game.
He followed that with a two-goal, four-assist effort in the win over UMBC and the added the three-goal, one-assist performance at SU.
Stanwick is the first Johns Hopkins player to post nine points in a game since Kyle Barrie had five goals and four assists in a 17-3 win over Navy in 2003. He is also the first JHU player with back-to-back six-point games since Dan Denihan did it against Villanova (8), Ohio State (6) and Maryland (7) during the 2000 season.

Poppleton Rolls On: With a 14-of-23 performance at Syracuse, senior faceoff specialist Mike Poppleton continued his strong work at the X for the Blue Jays. Poppleton, who ranks first in the nation in faceoff winning percentage, is now 96-of-135 (.711) on the year and leads the team with 51 ground balls. He also improved to 286-of-445 (.643) in his career with his efforts last week at SU.

Benn Leads Team in Goals: Junior Brandon Benn continues to pace the team in goals (19) and ranks second in points (20) after scoring once at Syracuse last week. Benn’s one-goal showing at Syracuse brought to an end a five-game streak of scoring three goals or more. He is the first Johns Hopkins player with five straight hat tricks since Conor Ford turned the trick late in the 2004 season.

Cattoni Emerging: Freshman Holden Cattoni played in two of the Blue Jays’ first three games, but didn’t register a point in those two outings.
That changed quickly as the hard-shooting lefty punched up back-to-back two-point games against Princeton and Mount St. Mary’s. He fired home a pair of goals againt the Tigers and added one goal and one assist against the Mount. He scored an extra man goal against Syracuse and now has four goals and one assist for five points on the year.

What Brown Does For Us: Freshman Ryan Brown has stepped in and made an immediate impact for the Blue Jays. Brown has eight goals and three assists through seven games and leads the team with seven extra-man goals. He has registered at least one point in six of seven games this season and his seven extra-man goals are already the most by a Johns Hopkins player since 2004, when Matt Rewkowski (12) and Conor Ford (8) both topped that mark.

Sanders Breaks Through: Junior midfielder Rex Sanders entered the 2013 season with one career goal to his credit. He has already far surpassed that total as he has scored eight goals through seven games. Sanders is tied for fourth on the team in goals (8) and ranks eighth in points (8).

Bassett Solid Through Seven: Senior Pierce Bassett hails from Arizona, but the chill of the early season in Baltimore hasn’t slowed him as he currently boasts a .569 save percentage and an 8.37 goals against average. He ranks 12th in the nation in goals against average and 15th in save percentage. He posted 10 saves in the win against UMBC and became the 10th Johns Hopkins goalie to reach the 400-save mark in the process. He has 417 career saves to his credit – a mark that ranks 10th in school history.

Durkin Fuels Defense: Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala has the luxury of returning the nation’s top defensive player in senior co-captain Tucker Durkin, who has picked up right where he left off a year ago. Durkin currently ranks third on the team in ground balls (17) and leads the team with nine caused turnovers. Durkin is the anchor of a Johns Hopkins defense that ranks 12th nationally in scoring defense (8.57).

Scoring Droughts Abound: Despite the new rules in place this season that aim to quicken the pace (and thus increasing scoring), the Johns Hopkins defense has been able to hold the opposition scoreless for long stretches this season.
Siena, Towson and Michigan each drew blanks of at least 15 minutes and all three had two droughts that lasted at least 13 minutes. Princeton was more productive in its win against JHU, but did have one scoring drought that covered more than 11 minutes, while Mount St. Mary’s went more than 18 minutes without a goal at one point and UMBC was held off the board for 24:04 to open the game and 13:01 later in the game.

A Game of Runs: In JHU’s five wins the Blue Jays have used a game-turning run to pull away. Against Princeton, the Blue Jays did have a 3-0 run in the second half before the Tigers pulled away for the victory, while a 6-2 run against Syracuse trimmed a 6-1 deficit to 8-7 before the Blue Jays ultimately fell.

Poll Position: The Blue Jays are ranked 10th in this week’s USILA Coaches Poll and 11th in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll as well. The Johns Hopkins Athletic Communications Office uses the USILA Poll to represent JHU’s official ranking at the time of a game. Prior to falling out of the top 20 of the USILA Poll on April 26 and May 3, 2010 (JHU was receiving votes in both polls), the Blue Jays had been ranked in the top 20 in 367 consecutive polls dating back to the first poll in 1973.

More Poll Position: Including this week’s USILA Poll, there have been 402 weekly polls since the inception of the poll in 1973. Amazingly, JHU has been ranked in the top 20 in 400 of those 402 polls. The Blue Jays have been in the top 10 in 379 of the 402 and the top five in 299 of those 402. Johns Hopkins has been ranked number one 104 times since the poll debuted in 1973.

I’m Honored: The Blue Jays return four players who earned All-America honors last season in seniors Tucker Durkin, Pierce Bassett and John Ranagan and junior Rob Guida. Durkin earned First Team All-America honors on defense, while Ranagan and Guida grabbed second team honors at midfield. Bassett earned honorable mention honors in goal and he, Durkin and Ranagan are two-time All-America selections for the Blue Jays.

Odd, But True: Years ending in “3” have been kind, and unkind, to the Blue Jays. Since the formation of the NCAA Tournament in 1971, Johns Hopkins has advanced to the NCAA Championship game three times (1973, 1983, 2003) and the NCAA Semifinals once (1993) in the years ending in three. JHU fell in each of those three title games with the three loses coming by a total of four goals. In each of those instances the Blue Jays subsequently won a national championship within two years.

Representing the Stars and Stripes – Part I: Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala will serve as an assistant coach for the United States at at the 2014 Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Championships in Denver Colorado. Pietramala will serve under Richie Meade, the head coach at Navy from 1995-2011.

Representing the Stars and Stripes – Part II: Johns Hopkins sophomore defender Rob Enright was a member of the United States Team that won the 2012 FIL U-19 World Championship in Turku, Finland. Enright is the 17th Johns Hopkins player to represent the United States at the U-19 Championships since the formation of the event in 1988.

Working Overtime: The Blue Jays have won their last three overtime games dating back to the 2011 season and are 19-9 all-time in overtime under head coach Dave Pietramala.

Streaking: In case you didn’t notice, Johns Hopkins is 25-7 in its last 32 games and 30-9 since the start of the 2011 season.

SYRACUSE, NY – Host Syracuse used a 6-0 run in the first quarter and a game-ending 5-1 run to fuel a 13-8 victory over visiting Johns Hopkins in men’s lacrosse action at the Carrier Dome Saturday afternoon. The Orange trailed for just over two minutes early in the game and then took control before holding off a Blue Jay rally that trimmed the five-goal deficit to one early in the third quarter.

Syracause (4-1) got one of the runs its known for early as Luke Cometti answered Holden Cattoni’s game-opening goal and the Orange then scored five goals in a span of just under five minutes to take control and grab all the momentum.

Back-to-back goals by Henry Schoonmaker broke the 1-1 tie and gave SU and 3-1 lead and Hakeem Lecky, Scott Loy and Derek Maltz all added goals before the first quarter was over to make it 6-1.

The Blue Jays halted the run with the first of Wells Stanwick’s three goals on the day, but a Matt Harris goal on a scramble off the ensuing faceoff made it 7-2.

The Blue Jays hopped back in the game by scoring four of the next five goals before halftime to make it 8-6 at the half.

Stanwick’s second of the game with just over nine minutes remaining in the period was followed 24 seconds later by a Lee Coppersmith goal in transition to slice the deficit to 7-4.

Loy’s second of the game pushed the lead back to four for the Orange, but junior Rex Sanders and Stanwick struck late in the quarter to account for the 8-6 halftime score.

The Blue Jays, who fought through nine first-half turnovers and were 2-for-2 with the extra-man in the opening 30 minutes, trimmed the deficit to 8-7 less than three minutes into the third quarter when freshman Ryan Brown notched his eighth goal of the season with an extra-man strike.

Johns Hopkins won the ensuing faceoff after Brown’s goal, but a turnover led to Lecky’s second of the game to give the Orange a two-goal lead again.

Senior goalie Pierce Bassett made two point-blank saves to keep it a two-goal game over the next six minutes, but Syracuse worked Loy free along the goal line with 5:25 remaining and he beat Bassett on the doorstep to extend the lead to 10-7 before Loy added his third in the final two minutes of the quarter to make it 11-7.

Junior Brandon Benn scooped up a loose ball in front of the goal and fired into an open net less than two minutes into the fourth quarter, but Matt Pratt answered less than a minute later and a Dylan Donahue goal closed out the scoring 10 minutes later for the Orange.

Loy led the Orange with three goals, while Schoonmaker added two goals and one assist for SU, which outshot the Blue Jays 39-29.

Stanwick paced the Blue Jays with his third straight four-point game on three goals and one assist, but no other Blue Jay posted more than one point on the day. Bassett posted 11 saves in goal for JHU and senior Mike Poppleton won 14-of-23 faceoffs and grabbed seven ground balls, but the Blue Jays’ 17 turnovers and SU’s hot shooting in the first quarter (6-of-11) was more than JHU could overcome.

Johns Hopkins will return to action next Saturday when the Blue Jays play Virginia in the second game of the Konica Minolta Faceoff Classic at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium.

#4 Johns Hopkins (5-2) 1-5-1-1/8
#11 Syracuse (4-1) 6-2-3-2/13

Goals: J: Stanwick-3, Sanders, Benn, Brown, Cattoni, Coppersmith. S: Loy-3, Schoonmaker-2, Lecky-2, Cometti, Maltz, Ward, Donahue, Harris, Pratt. Assists: J: Greeley, Stanwick. S: Marasco-3, Barber, Cometti, Donahue, Maltz, Schoonmaker, Ward. Saves: J: Bassett-11, Schneider-0. S: Wardwell-3, Lamolinara-5. Shots: J-29. S-39.EMO: J: -3-for-6. S: 0-for-4. Attendance: 6,292.

Television:  ESPNU

The Game: Johns Hopkins (5-1) leaves the state of Maryland for the first time in 2013 as the Blue Jays travel to Syracuse (3-1) to renew one of the great rivalries in college lacrosse.

A Look Back: Johns Hopkins improved to 5-1 on the year as the Blue Jays topped UMBC, 13-7, last Friday night at Homewood Field. Syracuse made it three straight in the win column as the Orange topped St. John’s, 13-11, in the Whitman’s Sampler Independence Classic last Saturday in Chester, PA.

Series History: Johns Hopkins and Syracuse are meeting for the 51st time in a series that dates to a 4-4 tie in 1921. The Blue Jays lead the all-time series 27-22-1 and won last season, 11-7. SU had won five in a row against JHU prior to last season and has won the last two meetings in the Carrier Dome.

These are the Facts: Johns Hopkins enters this week’s game against Syracuse with an all-time record of 929-299-15 (.753). The Blue Jays own nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 44 national championships.

State Rivalries: Without question the Blue Jays play one of the most difficult schedules in the nation and a big part of the schedule are the in-state rivalries the Blue Jays have. Including the win last week against UMBC, JHU is 59-7 (.894) against teams from Maryland under head coach Dave Pietramala.
That’s 103 Games Over .500: Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala picked up his 166th career win when JHU knocked off UMBC and he now stands at 166-63 overall. Included in that mark is a 143-46 record at JHU and a 23-17 record in three seasons as the head coach at Cornell.
Pietramala ranks second all-time in school history in career coaching victories as only Hall of Fame coach Bob Scott (158 wins from 1955-74) has more victories than Pietramala while patrolling the sidelines at Homewood.

Must be the Speech: There must be something to what Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala says in the locker room that sparks the Blue Jays as Johns Hopkins holds decided scoring advantages in the first and third quarters through six games. JHU has outscored the opposition 27-7 in the first quarter and 24-10 in the third. By contrast, the Blue Jays hold just a 20-17 scoring margin in the fourth quarter and are deadlocked in the second quarter (13-13).

Balancing Act: Johns Hopkins counts seven players with four or more goals and 10 players with four or more points through six games. In all, 17 different players have found the back of the net for JHU and 20 players have at least one point.

EMO Clicking: The Johns Hopkins extra man unit connected on 5-of-6 chances against Mount St. Mary’s, came back with a 4-of-6 showing against UMBC and is now 17-of-29 (.586) on the year. Johns Hopkins currently leads the nation in extra-man offense. Seven different players have scored at least one extra man goal for the Blue Jays with freshman Ryan Brown (6), senior Zach Palmer (3) and junior Brandon Benn (3) leading the way.

Stanwick Breaks Out: Sophomore attackman Wells Stanwick enjoyed the finest game of his career in the 19-9 win over Mount St. Mary’s last Tuesday as he totaled five goals and four assists for nine points. Previously he had never had more than two goals, three assists or four points in a game.
He followed that with a two-goal, four-assist effort in the win over UMBC to push his season totals to 12 goals and 11 assists for 23 points. The 12 goals already surpass his total from last season and his 23 points match his total from a year ago.
Stanwick is the first Johns Hopkins player to post nine points in a game since Kyle Barrie had five goals and four assists in a 17-3 win over Navy in 2003. He is also the first JHU player with back-to-back six-point games since Dan Denihan did it against Villanova (8), Ohio State (6) and Maryland (7) during the 2000 season.

Poppleton Rolls On: With a 15-of-21 performance against Mount St. Mary’s and a 12-of-19 effort against UMBC, senior faceoff specialist Mike Poppleton continued his strong work at the X for the Blue Jays.
Poppleton, who ranks first in the nation in faceoff winning percentage, is now 82-of-112 (.732) on the year and leads the team with 44 ground balls. He also improved to 272-of-422 (.645) in his career with his efforts last week.

Benn Continues Hot Streak: Junior Brandon Benn scored four goals in the win over Mount St. Mary’s to run his season totals to 18 goals and one assist in five games. He currently leads the team in goals and points.
Benn’s four-goal effort marked his fifth straight hat trick, making him the first Johns Hopkins player with five straight hat tricks since Conor Ford turned the trick late in the 2004 season. The last Johns Hopkins player to post six consecutive hat tricks was Dylan Schlott in 1998.

Cattoni Emerging: Freshman Holden Cattoni played in two of the Blue Jays’ first three games, but didn’t register a point in those two outings.
That changed quickly as the hard-shooting lefty punched up back-to-back two-point games against Princeton and Mount St. Mary’s. He fired home a pair of goals againt the Tigers and added one goal and one assist against the Mount.

What Brown Does For Us: Freshman Ryan Brown has stepped in and made an immediate impact for the Blue Jays. Brown has seven goals and three assists through six games and leads the team with six extra-man goals. He has registered at least one point in five of six games this season and his six extra-man goals already match the team-leading total Brandon Benn punched up a year ago.

Sanders Breaks Through: Junior midfielder Rex Sanders entered the 2013 season with one career goal to his credit. He has already far surpassed that total as he has scored seven goals through six games. Sanders is tied for fifth on the team in goals (7) and is tied for eighth in points (7).

Bassett Solid Through Six: Senior Pierce Bassett hails from Arizona, but the chill of the early season in Baltimore hasn’t slowed him as he currently boasts a .600 save percentage and a 7.33 goals against average. He ranks eightth in the nation in goals against average and sixth in save percentage. He posted 10 saves in the win against UMBC and became the 10th Johns Hopkins goalie to reach the 400-save mark (406) in the process.

Durkin Fuels Defense: Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala has the luxury of returning the nation’s top defensive player in senior co-captain Tucker Durkin, who has picked up right where he left off a year ago.
Durkin currently ranks third on the team in ground balls (14) and leads the team with nine caused turnovers. Durkin counts exactly one-fourth of JHU’s total caused turnovers (36) to his credit and is the anchor of a Johns Hopkins defense that ranks 11th nationally in scoring defense (7.83).

Scoring Droughts Abound: Despite the new rules in place this season that aim to quicken the pace (and thus increasing scoring), the Johns Hopkins defense has been able to hold the opposition scoreless for long stretches this season.
Siena, Towson and Michigan each drew blanks of at least 15 minutes and all three had two droughts that lasted at least 13 minutes. Princeton was more productive in its win against JHU, but did have one scoring drought that covered more than 11 minutes, while Mount St. Mary’s went more than 18 minutes without a goal at one point and UMBC was held off the board for 24:04 to open the game and 13:01 later in the game. I’m Honored: The Blue Jays return four players who earned All-America honors last season in seniors Tucker Durkin, Pierce Bassettand John Ranagan and junior Rob Guida. Durkin earned First Team All-America honors on defense, while Ranagan and Guida grabbed second team honors at midfield. Bassett earned honorable mention honors in goal and he, Durkin and Ranagan are two-time All-America selections for the Blue Jays.

Odd, But True: Years ending in “3” have been kind, and unkind, to the Blue Jays. Since the formation of the NCAA Tournament in 1971, Johns Hopkins has advanced to the NCAA Championship game three times (1973, 1983, 2003) and the NCAA Semifinals once (1993) in the years ending in three. JHU fell in each of those three title games with the three loses coming by a total of four goals. In each of those instances the Blue Jays subsequently won a national championship within two years.

Representing the Stars and Stripes – Part I: Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala will serve as an assistant coach for the United States at at the 2014 Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Championships in Denver Colorado. Pietramala will serve under Richie Meade, the head coach at Navy from 1995-2011.

Representing the Stars and Stripes – Part II: Johns Hopkins sophomore defender Rob Enright was a member of the United States Team that won the 2012 FIL U-19 World Championship in Turku, Finland. Enright is the 17th Johns Hopkins player to represent the United States at the U-19 Championships since the formation of the event in 1988.

Working Overtime: The Blue Jays have won their last three overtime games dating back to the 2011 season and are 19-9 all-time in overtime under head coach Dave Pietramala.

Streaking: In case you didn’t notice, Johns Hopkins is 25-6 in its last 31 games and 30-8 since the start of the 2011 season.

Poll Position: The Blue Jays are ranked fourth in this week’s USILA Coaches Poll and fifth in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll as well. The Johns Hopkins Athletic Communications Office uses the USILA Poll to represent JHU’s official ranking at the time of a game. Prior to falling out of the top 20 of the USILA Poll on April 26 and May 3, 2010 (JHU was receiving votes in both polls), the Blue Jays had been ranked in the top 20 in 367 consecutive polls dating back to the first poll in 1973.

More Poll Position: Including this week’s USILA Poll, there have been 401 weekly polls since the inception of the poll in 1973. Amazingly, JHU has been ranked in the top 20 in 399 of those 401 polls. The Blue Jays have been in the top 10 in 378 of the 401 and the top five in 299 of those 401. Johns Hopkins has been ranked number one 104 times since the poll debuted in 1973.

Palmer in Rare Company: Senior attackman Zach Palmer led Johns Hopkins in scoring with 27 goals and 26 assists for 53 points last season. With that effort, Palmer became the first player at Johns Hopkins with 25 goals and 25 assists in the same season since 2007, when Paul Rabil totaled 27 goals and 26 assists. The 25-25 feat is rare at Johns Hopkins as Palmer is just the eighth Blue Jay to reach this mark since 1980 (the eight have turned the trick a combined 13 times).

Palmer Among Career Active Assists Leaders: Senior attackman Zach Palmer notched two assists against Mount St. Mary’s to run his career assist total to 67. He currently ranks ninth among all active Division I players in career assists.

BALTIMORE, MD – The sixth-ranked Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse team jumped out to a 5-0 lead and later used a 5-1 run to put the game away as the Blue Jays powered their way past visiting UMBC, 13-7, at blustery Homewood Field Friday night. Eight different players scored for the Blue Jays, who improved to 5-1 on the year and 11-0 all-time against the Retrievers. UMBC slips to 1-4 on the year with the loss.

The Blue Jays wasted little time taking control as they scored twice before the game was four minutes old and built a five-goal lead in the opening quarter. John Greeley and Ryan Brown sandwiched extra-man goals around the first of Zach Palmer’s three goals to stake JHU to a 3-0 lead and junior Greg Edmonds and Palmer both scored in the final 90 seconds of the first period to account for the five-goal game-opening run for the Blue Jays. Palmer’s second strike of the opening period was a behind-the-back highlight reel goal with just 40 seconds left on the clock.

The quick start is nothing new for Johns Hopkins, which has now outscored its six opponents 27-7 in the first quarter this season.

The Retrievers halted the run and hopped back in the game with back-to-back goals in just under a two-minute span late in the second quarter. A David Campbell strike off a nice feed to the slot from Joe Lustgarten finally got the Retrievers on the board with 5:55 remaining in the first half and Pat Young split a double team and blew home his sixth goal of the season at the 4:03 mark to make it a three-goal game.

Any hopes for a UMBC comeback were dashed in a five-minute span bridging the second and third quarters as JHU scored three goals in that span to push the 5-2 lead to 8-2.

Senior John Kaestner handled a tight pass in traffic on the crease and threaded home his third goal of the season and Palmer completed his first-half hat trick with 63 seconds left before intermission to make it 7-2 at the half. When senior John Ranagan swept across the top of the box and blew a left-handed laser past Wes DeRito early in the second half, the Blue Jays had their largest lead of the game at that point.

The Retrievers scored three of the next five goals, including back-to-back extra-man goals by senior Scott Jones, to make it a 10-5 game early in the fourth quarter, but Hopkins answered by scoring three of the next four as Ranagan, Brown and Wells Stanwick all scored their second goal of the game during the spree to make it 13-6. An unassisted goal by Young with 1:17 to play accounted for the final scoring.

Stanwick led the Blue Jays with two goals and a career-high-tying four assists, while Palmer added two assists to his eighth career hat trick. Ranagan (2g, 1a), Brown (2g) and Kaestner (1g, 1a) also added multi-point efforts for the Blue Jays, who got a 12-of-19 showing on faceoffs from senior Mike Poppleton and 10 saves from senior Pierce Bassett.

Jones was the only multi-goal scorer for the Retrievers, who won the ground ball battle (34-28) and outshot the Blue Jays (35-33), but couldn’t overcome the early five-goal deficit. DeRtio made nine saves in his first career start in goal and Phil Poe won 10-of-22 faceoffs and grabbed six ground balls for the Retrievers.

Johns Hopkins will return to action on Saturday, March 16 when the Blue Jays renew one of the great rivalries in college lacrosse with a trip to Syracuse.

UMBC (1-4) 0-2-2-3/7
#6 Johns Hopkins (5-1) 5-2-3-3/13

Goals: U: Jones-2, Young-2, Lewnes-Nate, Gregoire, Campbell. J: Palmer-3, Stanwick-2, Ranagan-2, Brown-2, Kaestner, Edmonds, Pellegrino, Greeley. Assists: U: Linkous-2, Doub, Lustgarten. J: Stanwick-4, Palmer-2, Coppermsith, Kaestner, Ranagan. Saves: U: DeRito-9. J: Bassett-10, Schneider-1. Shots: U-35. J-33. EMO: U: 2-for-3. J: 4-for-6. Attendance: 1,045.

After an unexpected break in its harrowing early season schedule, the UMBC men’s lacrosse team (1-3) gets back to work on Friday, March 8 when they face No. 6 Johns Hopkins (4-1) at Homewood Field. UMBC was slated to play at No. 1 Maryland on Wednesday, but inclement weather postponed the contest. The opening face-off takes place at JHU just after 5:00 p.m. The game will be nationally-televised on ESPNU with Mike Corey providing the play-by-play and analysis from Jamie Munro.

In an eleven-day span, UMBC faced No. 4 Loyola (Feb. 26) and No. 13 Fairfield, and now concludes that stretch vs. No. 6 Johns Hopkins (March 8)- all on the road.

UMBC is coming off a 14-9 setback at Fairfield on Saturday afternoon. UMBC outshot the Stags, 41-40, but FU netminder Jack Murphy continued his brilliant early season play by stopping 17 Retriever shots. Junior midfielders Conor Finch and Zach Linkous each scored three times for UMBC, while Phil Poe won 16 of 27 draws to lead the visitors.

TOP DOG: Head Coach Don Zimmerman enters his 20^th season at UMBC in 2013. The Retriever mentor stood eighth in victories (213) and 15th in winning percentage (60.7%) amongst active Division I coaches after the 2012 campaign. The win over Binghamton on April 10, 2010 was the 200th in the career of UMBC head coach Don Zimmerman. He is now 214-139 in his 27th year as a collegiate mentor. He coached his 250th game at UMBC vs. Hartford on May 4, 2011.

WINNING THE TIGHT ONES: UMBC is now 26-17 in games decided by three goals or less since the beginning of the 2007 season. UMBC had won eight straight overtime decisions from 2007-09 until dropping a Feb. 20, 2010 triple overtime decision to Delaware. UMBC’s previous overtime loss was an 11-10 setback at Penn early in the 2006 season.

In 2012, UMBC was 2-4 in games decided by one or two goals. The Retrievers have won 17 of its last 23 one-goal decisions.

UMBC is now 16-6 in Don Zimmerman’s 19+ seasons in overtime and in his career, Coach Zimmerman is 18-8 in extra time in 26 seasons.

DON’T LOOK BACK: UMBC is now in its 46th season of varsity men’s lacrosse with a record of 339-286 (.543). The Retrievers played their 600th intercollegiate match on March 18, 2012 at Maryland. They are 222-219 (.503) in their 32nd year at the Division I level, achieving win No. 200 vs. Ohio State on March 21, 2009. Before the win over Towson on April 1, 2008, the last time the program was last over the .500 mark at the Division I level was when at the end of its third season (1983) when the record was 19-18.

A LOOK AT THE OPPONENT: Sophomore attackman Wells Stanwick punched up career highs of five goals and four assists and the sixth-ranked Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse team scored 13 second-half goals as the Blue Jays knocked off visiting Mount St. Mary’s, 19-9, at Homewood Field Tuesday evening. Hopkins has wins over Siena, Towson and Michigan and a setback to Princeton on its schedule to date. JR A Brandon Benn leads the JHU attack with 18 goals, while Stanwick has 10 goals and seven assists. Hopkins has outscored its foes, 22-7, in the first quarter in 2013.

ALL-TIME SERIES: UMBC is winless vs. Johns Hopkins in ten previous meetings- the Blue Jays are one of just two programs that the Retrievers have faced and do not own a win against. Robert Morris (now 0-2) is the other program on that short list. Only two of the previous ten meetings have taken place at UMBC. The Retrievers came the closest in 2008 and 2009, falling 10-8 at Homewood in ’08 and 14-11 at UMBC Stadium the following season.

A LOOK BACK: Last season, second-ranked Johns Hopkins (6-0) held UMBC (2-3) scoreless for over 25 minutes in the middle stages of the game and defeated the Retrievers, 12-5, at M&T Bank Stadium. Jones scored three fourth-quarter goals to record his sixth career hat trick and second of the season. Lustgarten contributed three assists. Hopkins outshot UMBC, 39-31, and scored on both of its extra-man opportunities. Face-offs were even at 11-all.

UP NEXT: UMBC returns home for the first time since Feb. 26 when they welcome High Point to UMBC Stadium on Sat., March 16.

The Game: Johns Hopkins welcomes UMBC to Homewood Field for the 11th all-time meeting between the Baltimore area rivals. This will be the third of six games the Blue Jays play this season against in-state competition.

A Look Back: Johns Hopkins improved to 4-1 on the year with a 19-9 win over Mount St. Mary’s at Homewood Field on Tuesday night. UMBC dropped its last game, 14-9, at Fairfield last Saturday. The Retrievers were scheduled to play top-ranked Maryland on Wednesday, but that game was postponed due to inclement weather.

Series History: This week’s game will be the 11th meeting between Johns Hopkins and UMBC in men’s lacrosse. The teams first met in 1983 with JHU taking a 15-4 decision that day. Johns Hopkins has won all 10 previous meetings, including a 10-8 decision in 1984 in what was current UMBC head coach Don Zimmerman’s first game as the head coach at JHU.

These are the Facts: Johns Hopkins enters this week’s game against UMBC with an all-time record of 928-299-15 (.753). The Blue Jays own nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 44 national championships.

State Rivalries: Without question the Blue Jays play one of the most difficult schedules in the nation and a big part of the schedule are the in-state rivalries the Blue Jays have. Including the win earlier this week against Mount St. Mary’s, JHU is 58-7 (.892) against teams from Maryland under head coach Dave Pietramala. Below is a breakdown of JHU’s record against teams from the state of Maryland under Pietramala.

Loyola • 12-0
Maryland • 8-5
Mount St. Mary’s • 5-0
Navy • 11-2
Towson • 14-0
UMBC • 8-0

Zimmerman to be Inducted in JHU Hall of Fame: Current UMBC head coach Don Zimmerman is one of nine individuals recently elected for induction into the Johns Hopkins Athletic Hall of Fame. Zimmerman and the Class of 2013 will be honored in ceremonies scheduled for April 20.
Zimmerman coached the Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse team from 1984-90 and guided JHU to three NCAA Championships (1984, 1985, 1987) and one national runner-up finish (1989).
Zimmerman compiled a record of 73-15 (.830) during his time at Homewood and led the Blue Jays to the NCAA Tournament in each of his seven seasons. While patrolling the sidelines at Homewood, Zimmerman coached current Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala and associate head coach Bill Dwan. Current JHU offensive coordinator Bobby Benson also spent two years on Zimmerman’s staff at UMBC (2004 & 2005).

That’s 102 Games Over .500: Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala picked up his 165th career win when JHU knocked off Mount St. Mary’s and he now stands at 165-63 overall. Included in that mark is a 142-46 record at JHU and a 23-17 record in three seasons as the head coach at Cornell.
Pietramala ranks second all-time in school history in career coaching victories as only Hall of Fame coach Bob Scott (158 wins from 1955-74) has more victories than Pietramala while patrolling the sidelines at Homewood.

Must be the Speech: There must be something to what Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala says in the locker room that sparks the Blue Jays as Johns Hopkins holds decided scoring advantages in the first and third quarters through five games. JHU has outscored the opposition 22-7 in the first quarter and 21-8 in the third. By contrast, the Blue Jays hold just a 17-14 scoring margin in the fourth quarter and are deadlocked in the second quarter (11-11).

Balancing Act: Johns Hopkins counts seven players with four or more goals and 10 players with four or more points through five games. In all, 15 different players have found the back of the net for JHU and 19 players have at least one point.

EMO Clicking: The Johns Hopkins extra man unit connected on 5-of-6 chances against Mount St. Mary’s and is now 13-of-23 (.565) on the year. Six different players have scored at least one extra man goal for the Blue Jays with freshman Ryan Brown (4) and junior Brandon Benn (3) leading the way.

Stanwick Breaks Out: Sophomore attackman Wells Stanwick enjoyed the finest game of his career in the 19-9 win over Mount St. Mary’s on Tuesday as he totaled five goals and four assists for nine points. Previously he had never had more than two goals, three assists or four points in a game.
Stanwick is the first Johns Hopkins player to post nine points in a game since Kyle Barrie had five goals and four assists in a 17-3 win over Navy in 2003. His effort against the Mount improved his season totals to 10 goals and seven assists for 17 points.

Poppleton Rolls On: With a 15-of-21 performance against Mount St. Mary’s, senior faceoff specialist Mike Poppleton continued his strong work at the X for the Blue Jays.
Poppleton, who ranks first in the nation in faceoff winning percentage, is now 70-of-93 (.753) on the year and leads the team with 36 ground balls.

Benn Continues Hot Streak: Junior Brandon Benn scored four goals in the win over Mount St. Mary’s to run his season totals to 18 goals and one assist in five games. He currently leads the team in goals and points.
Benn’s four-goal effort marked his fifth straight hat trick, making him the first Johns Hopkins player with five straight hat tricks since Conor Ford turned the trick late in the 2004 season.

Cattoni Emerging: Freshman Holden Cattoni played in two of the Blue Jays’ first three games, but didn’t register a point in those two outings.
That all changed in the last two games as the hard-shooting lefty has punched up back-to-back two-point games against Princeton and Mount St. Mary’s. He fired home a pair of goals againt the Tigers and added one goal and one assist against the Mount.

What Brown Does For Us: Freshman Ryan Brown has stepped in and made an immediate impact for the Blue Jays. Brown has five goals and three assists through five games and leads the team with four extra-man goals. He has registered at least one point in four of five games this season.

Sanders Breaks Through: Junior midfielder Rex Sanders entered the 2013 season with one career goal to his credit. He has already far surpassed that total as he has scored seven goals through five games. Sanders is tied for third on the team in goals (7) and ranks eighth in points (7).

Bassett Solid Through Four: Senior Pierce Bassett hails from Arizona, but the chill of the early season in Baltimore hasn’t slowed him as he currently boasts a .594 save percentage and a 7.61 goals against average. He ranks 12th in the nation in goals against average and 10th in save percentage. He enters this week’s game vs. UMBC just four saves shy of 400 for his career. Only nine Johns Hopkins goalies in school history have amassed 400 or more saves.

Durkin Fuels Defense: Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala has the luxury of returning the nation’s top defensive player in senior co-captain Tucker Durkin, who has picked up right where he left off a year ago.
Durkin currently ranks third on the team in ground balls (12) and leads the team with nine caused turnovers. Durkin counts exactly one-third of JHU’s total caused turnovers (27) to his credit and is the anchor of a Johns Hopkins defense that ranks 11th nationally in scoring defense (8.0).

Scoring Droughts Abound: Despite the new rules in place this season that aim to quicken the pace (and thus increasing scoring), the Johns Hopkins defense has been able to hold the opposition scoreless for long stretches this season.
Siena, Towson and Michigan each drew blanks of at least 15 minutes and all three had two droughts that lasted at least 13 minutes. Princeton was more productive in its win against JHU, but did have one scoring drought that covered more than 11 minutes, while Mount St. Mary’s went more than 18 minutes without a goal at one point.

I’m Honored: The Blue Jays return four players who earned All-America honors last season in seniors Tucker Durkin, Pierce Bassett and John Ranagan and junior Rob Guida. Durkin earned First Team All-America honors on defense, while Ranagan and Guida grabbed second team honors at midfield. Bassett earned honorable mention honors in goal and he, Durkin and Ranagan are two-time All-America selections for the Blue Jays.

Odd, But True: Years ending in “3″ have been kind, and unkind, to the Blue Jays. Since the formation of the NCAA Tournament in 1971, Johns Hopkins has advanced to the NCAA Championship game three times (1973, 1983, 2003) and the NCAA Semifinals once (1993) in the years ending in three. JHU fell in each of those three title games with the three loses coming by a total of four goals. In each of those instances the Blue Jays subsequently won a national championship within two years.

Representing the Stars and Stripes – Part I: Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala will serve as an assistant coach for the United States at at the 2014 Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Championships in Denver Colorado. Pietramala will serve under Richie Meade, the head coach at Navy from 1995-2011.

Representing the Stars and Stripes – Part II: Johns Hopkins sophomore defender Rob Enright was a member of the United States Team that won the 2012 FIL U-19 World Championship in Turku, Finland. Enright is the 17th Johns Hopkins player to represent the United States at the U-19 Championships since the formation of the event in 1988.

Working Overtime: The Blue Jays have won their last three overtime games dating back to the 2011 season and are 19-9 all-time in overtime under head coach Dave Pietramala.

Streaking: In case you didn’t notice, Johns Hopkins is 24-6 in its last 30 games and 29-8 since the start of the 2011 season.

Poll Position: The Blue Jays are ranked sixth in this week’s USILA Coaches Poll and sixth in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll as well. The Johns Hopkins Athletic Communications Office uses the USILA Poll to represent JHU’s official ranking at the time of a game. Prior to falling out of the top 20 of the USILA Poll on April 26 and May 3, 2010 (JHU was receiving votes in both polls), the Blue Jays had been ranked in the top 20 in 367 consecutive polls dating back to the first poll in 1973.

More Poll Position: Including this week’s USILA Poll, there have been 400 weekly polls since the inception of the poll in 1973. Amazingly, JHU has been ranked in the top 20 in 398 of those 400 polls. The Blue Jays have been in the top 10 in 377 of the 400 and the top five in 298 of those 400. Johns Hopkins has been ranked number one 104 times since the poll debuted in 1973.

Palmer in Rare Company: Senior attackman Zach Palmer led Johns Hopkins in scoring with 27 goals and 26 assists for 53 points last season. With that effort, Palmer became the first player at Johns Hopkins with 25 goals and 25 assists in the same season since 2007, when Paul Rabil totaled 27 goals and 26 assists. The 25-25 feat is rare at Johns Hopkins as Palmer is just the eighth Blue Jay to reach this mark since 1980 (the eight have turned the trick a combined 13 times).

Palmer Among Career Active Assists Leaders: Senior attackman Zach Palmer notched two assists against Princeton to run his career assist total to 65. He is currently tied for ninth among all active Division I players in career assists.

BALTIMORE, MD – Sophomore attackman Wells Stanwick punched up career highs of five goals and four assists and the sixth-ranked Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse team scored 13 second-half goals as the Blue Jays knocked off visiting Mount St. Mary’s, 19-9, at Homewood Field Tuesday evening. The win improves the Blue Jays’ record to 4-1, while the Mountaineers slip to 2-4.

The Blue Jays led just 5-3 late in the second quarter after Brett Schmidt scored with 3:30 remaining in the period for the Mount. The second of Brandon Benn’s four goals with just 29 seconds left in the first half extended the lead to 6-3 at intermission and jump-started a 9-2 Johns Hopkins run that put the game away.

After Rex Sanders and Andrew Scalley traded goals in the first two minutes of the third quarter to make it 7-4, the Blue Jays got some breathing room with a four-goal spurt that took less than four minutes – for the second time in the game Stanwick had a hand in all four goals in a 4-0 run.

After assisting on an extra-man goal by freshman Ryan Brown with 9:42 remaining in the period, Stanwick sandwiched his third and fourth goals of the game around another Benn strike that he assisted on to push JHU’s lead to 11-4.

The Mount temporarily halted the run when Anthony Golden took a skip-pass from Bryant Schmidt and had time and room to beat Blue Jay goalie Eric Schneider from nine yards out, but the senior John Ranagan bookended a three-goal Blue Jay run that bridged the third and fourth quarters with his only two goals of the game to push the lead to 14-5.