May 20, 2006

Box Score

STONY BROOK, NY -- "Defend the Known." It's a phrase uttered often by Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse coach Dave Pietramala. Know the known and defend accordingly. In Saturday's NCAA Men's Lacrosse Quarterfinal against Syracuse, the Blue Jays knew the known, but couldn't stop them.

Syracuse attackman Brett Bucktooth, Joe Yevoli and Mike Leveille combined for eight goals and four assists and the fifth-seeded Orange withstood a furious fourth-quarter comeback by the Blue Jays to advance to next weekend's national semifinals with a 13-12 win in front of a LaValle Stadium record crowd of 8,335. Johns Hopkins, which was bidding for a fifth straight appearance in the semifinals, ends the season at 9-5.

Syracuse led 12-7 after freshman Kenny Nims polished off a 4-0 Syracuse run with his only goal of the game just after Hopkins killed off a penalty midway through the fourth quarter. The four-goal lead lasted exactly eight seconds as the Blue Jays began their comeback with a goal off the ensuing faceoff when sophomore Stephen Peyser scored off an assist from his brother, Greg Peyser.

The Orange held the 12-8 lead for over three minutes before junior Jake Byrne took a skip pass from Stephen Peyser and beat Syracuse goalie Peter Coluccini with an eight-yard blast with 5:24 remaining.

Syracuse, which won just one faceoff in the fourth quarter, got the one after Byrne's goal and milked just over a minute off the clock before Brian Crockett took a nice feed from Yevoli and beat Blue Jay goalie Jesse Schwartzman from eight yards. The 13-9 lead appeared safe as there was just 4:17 remaining when Crockett scored.

Greg Peyser needed just 26 seconds to make it 13-10 when he swept across the top of the box and picked the corner with a low shot across his body. When sophomore Kevin Huntley scored his only goal of the game 40 seconds later the atmosphere in the stadium was electric as a repeat of the rally Massachusetts staged earlier in the day (the Minutemen erased a 10-5 fourth-quarter deficit and beat Hofstra 11-10 in overtime) seemed possible.

Hopkins again won the ensuing faceoff, but Syrcuase forced a turnover with just under two minutes remaining and quickly transitioned the ball into the offensive end and called timeout. Greg Peyser, playing with a long pole for the first time in his career on the ensuing possession, helped force a quick turnover after the timeout and the Blue Jays successfully cleared to set up one final push.

Coluccini made two big saves - one each on Stephen Peyser and Huntley - in the final minute before Rabil drove to the goal from the side and beat him in close with 6.7 seconds remaining. Greg Peyser won the ensuing faceoff on a loose-ball push with 3.1 seconds to go and his 30-yard shot as time expired was saved by Coluccini to seal the win.

"We needed to win faceoffs, get good play from our goalie and defend the knowns," Pietramala noted in the post-game press conference. "We didn't do a good job defending the knowns and you need to give credit to Syracuse for that. John Desko and his staff have did an excellent job and they had some players who stepped up and made plays."

The Blue Jays got off to a quick start as they jumped to a 3-1 lead in the first seven minutes. Rabil's unassisted goal just 55 seconds into the game opened the scoring and the first of Bucktooth's two goals tied the score just over three minutes later as the Orange fired seven shots on their first possession before solving Schwartzman.

Byrne and freshman Brian Christopher scored back-to-back goals in a span of just 84 seconds before the game was seven minutes old to give Hopkins the 3-1 lead.

Any momentum the Blue Jays built in the first seven minutes was quickly earased as a Yevoli goal at the 5:02 mark ignited a 6-1 Syracuse run that gave the Orange a 7-4 lead.

Leveille and Greg Peyser traded goals in the final four minutes of the first quarter as Hopkins carried a 4-3 lead into the second, but Bucktooth tied the game at the 9:45 mark of the second quarter and Leveille scored three straight goals in a six-minute span to give the Orange the three-goal advantage.

Rabil cut the deficit to 7-5 with his second goal of the game with 2:51 remaining in the half and the Blue Jays got the first of their six extra-man opportunities 14 seconds later. However, Syracuse long stick middie Steve Panarelli came up with a loose ball at the top of the box, raced down the field beat Schwartzman to the far post for a man-down goal that would prove to be critical.

The Blue Jays cut the 8-5 deficit to 8-7 with back-to-back extra-man goals by Drew Dabrowski and Rabil in a span of 12 seconds, but Yevoli and Pat Perrit answered with goals in the final 3:12 of the third quarter to make it 10-7 at the end of three. Greg Peyser's last second shot at the end of the period hit the post.

Syracuse freshman Dan Hardy opened fourth-quarter scoring with an unassisted goal just 2:24 into the period and Nims' goal four minutes later made it 12-7. That set the stage for the wild ending that wasn't complete until Coluccini made a save on Greg Peyser's last second shot.

Rabil led the Blue Jays with four goals and one assist, while Greg Peyser added two goals and two assists, won 10-of-14 faceoffs and had a game-high nine ground balls. The Blue Jays held advantages in shots (43-40), ground balls (34-22) and faceoffs (21-of-29).

Leveille led the Orange with four goals and one assist, while Yevoli added two goals and three assists. Bucktooth scored the two goals and added one assist and Coluccini reigstred 16 saves to lead the Orange, who avenged a 14-9 regular season loss to the Blue Jays with the win.

Syracuse will take on the winner of Sunday's Georgetown-Virginia game in next week's semifinals.