May 26, 2007

Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery

BALTIMORE, MD - Junior midfielder Stephen Peyser and freshman midfielder Michael Kimmel both scored three goals and senior goalie Jesse Schwartzman posted 10 saves as the third-seeded Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team eased past unseeded Delaware, 8-3, in the NCAA Semifinals at Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium Saturday afternoon. The win runs Hopkins' winning streak to eight games and the Blue Jays improve to 12-4 on the year. Delaware had its seven-game winning streak snapped and ends the season at 13-6.

"I thought we were spectacular on defense, very good in goal and good on faceoffs," Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala noted in the post-game press conference. "I thought we played poorly on offense, but Delaware's defense did a good job and they did a lot of things to throw us off." Despite the "off" game, the Blue Jays controlled the tempo from the start, but didn't pull away until the late in the third quarter.

The Blue Jays led just 2-1 at the half and the Hens were within 3-2 after a J.J. Moran goal with 9:28 remaining in the third quarter, but Hopkins used a five-goal run to put the game away and move into the national championship game for the third time in five years.

Sophomore Tom Duerr ignited the spree with his fourth goal of the season with just 50 seconds remaining in the third quarter when he worked from behind the goal to the left of Delaware goalie Tom Scherr and beat Scherr low to the far post with a five-yard shot. Delaware's Alex Smith won the ensuing faceoff and went in alone on Schwartzman, but Schwartzman came up with the save and the momentum-swinging stop was capitalized on by Kimmel with eight seconds left in the quarter when he dodged from behind the goal and beat Scherr on the doorstep to make it 5-2 entering the fourth quarter.

Peyser, who had opened the scoring in the game with an unassisted goal midway through the first quarter, pushed the lead to 6-2 when he fired a low shot past Scherr just 55 seconds into the fourth quarter. That lead held for just over seven minutes when Peyser completed his second career hat trick with his third unassisted goal of the game. Kimmel completed the fourth hat trick of his freshman year with 3:31 remaining as he dodged from behind again and beat Scherr in tight to make it 8-2. Delaware's Dan Deckelbaum, who entered the game with 26 goals, closed out the scoring when he punched one home with 2:28 remaining.

"I think we were getting good looks all day, we just weren't capitalizing on our opportunities," Peyser noted of the low-scoring first half. "We were dodging hard all day and finally in the second half we started to shoot a little better. We just grinded it out on offense."

The game-within-the-game that had been talked about all week was the matchup between Smith and Blue Jay faceoff specialists Jamison Koesterer. Smith entered the game as the nation's top faceoff specialist (73.3%), but the tandem of Koesterer and Peyser was up to the challenge as they combined to win 8-of-15. Peyser won 3-of-6 and grabbed four ground balls to go along with his three goals, while Koesterer won 5-of-9 and had two ground balls. Smith had won at least 50% of the his faceoffs in 19 straight games and 61 of 68 games entering the semifinals.

"It's kind of hard to ignore a player like that," Koesterer noted of Smith. "We know that he liked to push the ball forward and create fast break opportunities. We thought throughout the week that if we practiced getting in front of him and prevented him from pushing the ball forward we had a chance to make it a ground ball war."

Schwartzman spearheaded a standout effort by the Blue Jay defense with his 10-save performance. The three goals allowed are the fewest ever allowed in an NCAA Semifinal game and are tied for the second-fewest Johns Hopkins has ever allowed in an NCAA Tournament game. Delaware didn't score until freshman Curtis Dickson finally broke through with an unassisted goal with 4:28 remaining in the second quarter. The Hens were then held scoreless for 20 minutes later in the game to give the Blue Jays eight runs of holding the opposition scoreless for 20 minutes or longer this season.

Delaware (13-6) 0-1-1-1/3
Johns Hopkins (12-4) 1-1-3-3/8

Goals: D: Deckelbaum, Moran, Dickson. J: Peyser-3, Kimmel-3, Rabil, Duerr. Assists: D: Hall. J: none. Saves: D: Scherr-11. J: Schwartzman-10. Shots: D-37. J-40. EMO: D: 0-for-2. J: 1-for-2. Attendance: 52,004.