Feb. 23, 2008

Box Score

BALTIMORE, MD - The Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team spotted 11th-ranked Albany an early 1-0 lead then scored six of the next seven goals en route to a 10-5 win over the Great Danes in front of 1,993 fans at Homewood Field Saturday afternoon. The top-ranked Blue Jays, who never let Albany closer than two after building a 6-2 lead, won for the sixth time in eight season openers under head coach Dave Pietramala and extended their winning streak to 10 games dating back to last season.

Albany's Jordan Levine (Bethpage, NY/Bethpage) needed just 36 seconds to give the Great Danes an early 1-0 lead as he scored on an ally dodge down the right side. Hopkins' sophomore attackman Steven Boyle (Derry, NH/Pinkerton Academy) responded and gave the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead with back-to-back goals less than two minutes apart. He handled a tough pass on the back door and beat Albany's Brett Queener (Penn Yan, NY/Penn Yan Academy) from 10-feet out to tie the game and dodged from behind the goal with 11:32 remaining to make it 2-1. As it turned out, the game was never tied again.

Senior Michael Doneger (Hewlett, NY/Lynbrook) and Levine traded goals over the final 8:04 of the first period as Doneger popped off the crease and one-time a shot past Queener off an assist from Brian Christopher (Springfield, PA/Springfield), while Levine scored from in tight with just six seconds left in the opening quarter after holding the ball for nearly a minute.

Senior Kevin Hunley (Towson, MD/Calvert Hall) scored the first of his four goals on the day just 80 seconds into the second quarter to account for the only other goal before the half as JHU carried a 4-2 lead into intermission. Doneger added his second goal just over two minutes into the third quarter off an assist from Huntley and senior Paul Rabil (Gaithersburg, MD/DeMatha) made it 6-2 midway through the period when he picked the top of the next with laser from 12 yards out.

Albany didn't go quietly as the Danes scored three of the next four goals to pull within 7-5 early in the fourth quarter. An extra-man goal by Joe Pompo (Syracuse, NY/West Genesee) with 3:03 left in the third quarter was answered by Huntley's second of the day just 73 seconds before the end of the third to make it 7-3 at the end of three. Pompo's goal broke a scoreless streak of 27:03 for Albany and ignited a mild-rally for the Danes. Twin brothers Steve and Mike Ammann (Putnam Valley, NY/Putnam Valley) netted back-to-back goals just 38 seconds apart less than three minutes into the fourth quarter to trim the deficit to two, but Huntley's third of the game with 11:29 remaining pushed the lead back to three and Stephen Peyser (Lloyd Harbor, NY/Cold Spring Harbor) and Huntley closed the scoring with goals in the final 7:05 to account for the final scoring.

Huntley's four goals and five points werw game highs, while Boyle added two goals and one assist and Doneger netted the pair to lead the way offensively for the Blue Jays. Sophomore Michael Gvozden (Millersville, MD/Severna Park) registered 11 saves in goal for the Blue Jays, including five in the second and third quarters combined when Hopkins outscored Albany, 4-1. Freshman Matt Dolente (Phoenixville, PA/Malvern Prep) won 7-of-9 faceoffs to help the Blue Jays to an 11-8 advantage at the X and Hopkins won the ground ball war, 40-29.

Levine was the only multi-point scorer for Albany, which was 1-for-2 on extra-man opportunities and got six saves from Queener. However, the scoreless stretch of over 27 minutes and the inability to win faceoffs in the middle of the game (JHU won 5-of-7 in the second and third quarters combined) was more than the Danes could overcome.

Johns Hopkins will return to action next Saturday when the Blue Jays play Princeton in the second game of the Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic at Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium. Albany will host Siena on Tuesday at 2 pm.

#11 Albany (0-1) 2-0-1-2/11<><>#1 Johns Hopkins (1-0) 3-1-3-3/10

Goals: A: Levine-2, M. Ammann, S. Ammann, Pompo. J: Huntley-4, Doneger-2, Boyle-2, Rabil, Peyser. Assists: A: Small. J:Boyle, Bryan, Christopher, Hutnley, Kimmel. Saves: A: Queener-6, McKeon-0. J: Gvozden-11. Shots: A-26. J-29. EMO: A: 1-for-2. J: 0-for-1. Attendance: 1,993

- 30 -