May 19, 2007

Box Score

PRINCETON, NJ - Junior attackman Kevin Huntley matched his career-high with five goals and six points and the third-seeded Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team used a 6-0 first-half run to take control of Saturday's NCAA Quarterfinal game against sixth-seeded Georgetown as the Blue Jays rolled to a 14-6 win at Princeton Stadium Saturday afternoon. The win is the seventh straight for the Blue Jays, who improve to 11-4 and move into next week's national semifinals, where they will play the winner of Sunday's UMBC-Delaware game. Georgetown had an eight-game winning streak snapped and ends the season at 12-3.

Johns Hopkins will be making its fifth trip to the Final Four in the last six years and national-best 27th appearance in the national semifinals.

"We focused on preparing well for this game all week," Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala noted in the post-game press conference. "We didn't talk about getting back to the Final Four or anything associated with that ... we focused on preparation and doing the things necessary to beat a very talented Georgetown team. I'm just thrilled for our players who worked so hard for this."

After spotting the Hoyas the opening goal of the game the Blue Jays held Georgetown scoreless for the final 27 minutes of the opening half and methodically built a 6-1 margin at intermission. Sophomore Mark Bryan ignited the 6-0 run that covered the remainder of the first half as he worked from behind the goal to Georgetown goalie Miles Kass's right and beat him with a quick, sneaky shot under heavy pressure. The goal extended Bryan's point-scoring streak to a career-best six games.

Back-to-back goals by senior Jake Byrne in the final five minutes of the first quarter pushed the lead to 3-1. Byrne polished off a long possession by the second midfield when he took a pass from sophomore Brian Christopher and beat Kass with a high-to-low laser from the side. He then helped the Blue Jays beat the clock at the end of the period as he took a pass from junior Kevin Huntley and one-timed a nine-yard shot to the far post with just six seconds remaining in the period.

The 3-1 lead held through the first six minutes of the second quarter, a period that saw the Blue Jays kill a three-minute non-releasable penalty on Huntley for an illegal stick. The momentum gained from killing the penalty, during which Georgetown managed just two shots, was enhanced when sophomore Tom Duerr dodged from behind the goal and fired home his third goal of the season when he spun past a defender and beat Kass down low. As it turned out the Hoyas never rebounded and the Blue Jays were energized by the turn of events.

"When the penalty was called we turned our focus to our man-down unit and that's been a group that's been much maligned this season," Pietramala noted of the pivotal second-quarter sequence. "We were able to weather the storm defensively and I am proud of how Kevin responded after returning."

Huntley returned to the field shortly after Duerr scored and fired home the first of his five goals three minutes later when he blistered a low-to-high shot from the goal-line-extended past Kass and he dodged hard to the goal from the side five minutes later to make it 6-1 just 20 seconds before intermission.

The Hoyas struck for two of the first three goals of the second half as Ryan Still and Cullen Molinari sandwiched goals around a Michael Kimmel tally in the first 11 minutes of the third quarter, but a three-goal run by the Blue Jays in the final 3:38 of the period pushed the lead to 10-3 at the end of three quarters and Georgetown was never closer than six in the final 18 minutes. Huntley sandwiched a pair of goals around Andrew Miller's first career goal to fuel the late third-quarter spree.

Christopher, Kimmel and Huntley scored in a span of less than three minutes to answer a fourth-quarter-opening goal by Garrett Wilson before Steve Bauer and Trevor Casey sandwiched goals around a Stephen Peyser tally in the final 6:31 to account for the final scoring.

While the offense grabbed most of the attention with its 14-goal outburst, the Blue Jay defense was sensational as they held the Hoyas to their second-lowest output of the season. Senior goalie Jesse Schwartzman spearheaded the unit with 15 saves before giving way to freshman Michael Gvozden in the final minutes. The Blue Jays held Georgetown scoreless for more than 29 minutes as one point, the 20th time this season the Hopkins defense has held the opposition scoreless for a span of 10:45 or longer.

Huntley, who had previously scored five goals and notched six points in a game twice in his career, led the Blue Jays with his five-goal, one-assist effort. Kimmel and Byrne both scored two goals and junior Paul Rabil dished out a game-high three assists to fuel an offensive outburst that saw eight different players score goals and 11 different players register at least one point.

"Everyone on the offensive end was doing their job and moving the ball to the open guy," Rabil stated. "We talked about being organized and being disciplined. Today, Kevin was on the back-end of a lot of the ball-movement. It's been a different guy each week. It doesn't matter who gets the credit or scores the goals."

Only Casey, who scored one goal and added one assist, managed more than one point for the Hoyas, who got six saves from Kass, but failed on five extra-man opportunities, including the crucial three-minute advantage in the second quarter.

#4 Georgetown (12-3) 1-0-2-3/6
#5 Johns Hopkins (11-4) 3-3-4-4/14

Goals: G: Casey, Wilson, Brancaccio, Still, Bauer, Milinari. J: Huntley-5, Byrne-2, Kimmel-2, Christopher, Peyser, Bryan, Duerr, Miller. Assists: G: Casey. J: Rabil-3, Castle, Christopher, Huntley, Zerrlaut. Saves: G: Kaas-6, Davis-0. J: Schwartzman-15, Gvozden-1 Shots: G-36. J-34. EMO: G: 0-for-5. J: 0-for-2. Attendance: 8,123.

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