March 1, 2003

Box Score

PRINCETON, NJ -- The third-ranked Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team got three goals and two assists from senior attackman Bobby Benson, two goals and one assist from senior midfielder Adam Doneger and nine crucial saves from senior goalie Rob Scherr as the Blue Jays knocked off second-ranked Princeton, 10-8 at the Class of 1952 Stadium. This is the second straight season Hopkins has knocked off a higher-ranked Princeton team in the season-opener as JHU defeated the top-ranked Tigers, 8-5 last season at Homewood Field.

Hopkins wasted little time jumping on the Tigers as JHU led 4-1 at the end of the first period and 8-3 at halftime. Back-to-back goals by sophomores Kyle Harrison and Peter LeSueur in the first five minutes of the game gave JHU a quick 2-0 lead. Harrison's unassisted goal opened the scoring just 2:13 into the game, while LeSueur scored off an assist from Benson just over two minutes later.

After Princeton's Brad Dumont scored at the 8:01 mark of the first quarter, Benson netted back-to-back goals late in the first quarter to push the lead to 4-1. Princeton's Sean Hartofilis and Jason Doneger trimmed the deficit to 4-3 as they scored less than two minutes apart midway through the second quarter, but JHU used a 4-0 run in the last 4:32 of the second quarter to take an 8-3 lead. Junior Kevin Boland, Benson, LeSueur and Doneger all scored during the spree for the Blue Jays with Doneger's goal coming just six seconds before intermission.

After over 11 minutes of scoreless action in the third quarter, Princeton made its inevitable run late in the period. A Hartofilis goal started the spree, which also included goals by Josh White, Matt Trevenen and Owen Daly. Daly's goal, an unassisted tally, came with just five seconds remaining in the period and set up an exciting fourth quarter.

Both teams had early scoring chances, but it was an Adam Doneger goal with 5:54 remaining that gave Hopkins some breathing room. The lead stood at 9-7 when junior Corey Harned stripped a Princeton player of the ball in the defensive end and raced the length of the field before setting up a Kyle Barrie goal with 3:09 remaining that made it 10-7. A Jason Doneger goal for Princeton closed out the scoring with 2:29 remaining.

In addition to Benson and Doneger, LeSueur finished with two goals, junior Conor Ford added two assists and Barrie had the one goal and one assist. Many of Scherr's nine saves were of the point-blank variety and eight of the nine came in the second and third quarters. The Blue Jays won the ground ball war, 33-22, split 22 faceoffs (although they won 6-of-9 in the second half) and were outshot, 38-37.

Princeton got two goals and an assist from Hartofilis, two goals from Jason Doneger and two assists from Ryan Boyle. Julian Gould had 13 saves in goal for the Tigers.

Johns Hopkins will host Albany at 5:00 pm on Tuesday, while Princeton will host Virginia next Saturday.

#3 Johns Hopkins (1-0) 4-4-0-2/10 #2 Princeton (0-1) 1-2-4-1/8

Goals: J: Benson-3, Doneger-2, LeSueur-2, Barrie, Harrison, Boland. P: Hartofilis-2, Doneger-2, White, Trevenen, Dumont, Daly./ Assists: J: Benson-2, Ford-2, Barrie, Doneger, Harned, McDermott. P: Boyle-2, Hartofilis, MacColl, Trevenen, White. Saves: J: Scherr-9. P: Gould-13. Shots: J-37. P-38. EMO: J: 0-for-2. P: 0-for-1. Attendance: 3,103.

- 30 -