April 12, 2008

Box Score

BALTIMORE, MD - The 13th-ranked Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team thrilled a Homecoming crowd of 8,626 at Homewood Field Saturday afternoon with a thorough 10-4 victory over rival Maryland. The Blue Jays outscored Maryland 6-1 in the third quarter, got great play on faceoffs from senior Stephen Peyser and 13 saves in goal from sophomore Michael Gvozden as they improved to 4-5 on the year. Maryland dropped its second straight and slips to 7-4.

Hopkins led just 3-2 at the half before Peyser won the opening faceoff of the third quarter and raced down and beat Maryland goalie Jason Carter from eight yards just four seconds into the period. Peyser's goal ignited a 5-0 Blue Jay run that took just 7:29 and extended the one-goal halftime lead to 8-2. Michael Doneger's third goal of the game 66 seconds after Peyser's tally pushed the lead to 5-2 and junior Austin Walker fired home a pair of goals in a span of just over four minutes to continue the rally. Sophomore Michael Kimmel assisted on Doneger's goal and Walker's first before junior Mark Bryan assisted on Walker's second tally.

Senior Paul Rabil scored the first of his two second-half goals 45 seconds after Walker's second goal when he split a pair of defenders and picked the net just under the crossbar from nine yards out. Maryland finally halted the run with 4:36 remaining in the third quarter when Grant Catalino scored an extra-man goal off an assist from Dan Groot. The Blue Jays were actually playing two men down and nearly killed off the entire man-down situation before the Terps scored. Hopkins won 7-of-8 faceoffs in the quarter, outshot the Terps 11-6 in the period and got three timely saves from Gvozden to fuel the spree.

Maryland trimmed the deficit to 9-4 with 8:09 remaining in the fourth quarter when Adam Sear side-armed a shot just inside the far post after Catalino drew a slide and dumped it to him, but Rabil finished the scoring for the day with a goal clearly ticketed for Sports Center. Matched up with a short-stick middie behind the goal, he dodged from behind, used a swim move to beat the first slide and beat Carter from in tight while falling and rolling through the next slide to complete his hat trick.

The Blue Jays had built a 3-0 lead in the first 17 minutes of the game as Doneger scored back-to-back goals in a five-minute span that bridged the first and second quarter. Rabil had give the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead just 71 seconds into the game and Hopkins controlled the tempo throughout the first opening quarter. The Blue Jays outshot the Terrapins 14-5 in the opening 15 minutes and won all three faceoffs in the opening quarter.

The 3-0 lead held until the middle of the second quarter when the Terps finally broke through on an unassited goal by sophomore Brian Farrell, who raced the length of the field after a Blue Jay turnover and scored under heavy pressure. A Drew Evans goal just over two minutes later trimmed the deficit to 3-2. Gvozden made a nice save on a shot by Max Ritz, but Ritz came up with the rebound and fed Evans who scored is fifth goal of the year. Neither team scored again in the first half and Peyser's goal moments into the third quarter jump-started the game-clinching run for the Blue Jays.

Peyser earned JHU's Chris Gardner Player of the Game Award as he scored the one goal, had a game-high seven ground balls and won 12-of-13 faceoffs. This is the 11th straight year the Blue Jays have played a game in honor of Gardner, a member of the 1996 JHU men's lacrosse team who lost his battle with cancer in the fall of 1997. Rabil scored three goals and added one assist, Doneger matched his career-high with the three goals and Kimmel added a career-high-tying three assists. Gvozden's 13 saves are the second-highest total of his career.

Catalino was the only Terrapin player to register more than one point as he had the one goal and one assist. Carter posted 11 saves in goal for Maryland, but the Terps won just 3-of-18 faceoffs, were outshot 34-28 and lost the ground ball battle, 29-26.

#7 Maryland (7-4) 0-2-1-1/4
#13 Johns Hopkins (4-5) 2-1-6-1/10

Goals: M: Catalino, Farrell, Sear, Evans. J: Rabil-3, Doneger-3, Walker-2, Bryan, Peyser. Assists: M: Catalino, Groot, Ritz. J: Kimmel-3, Boyle, Bryan, Rabil. Saves: M: Carter-11. J: Gvozden-13. Shots: M-28. J-34. EMO: M: 1-for-1. J: 0-for-2. Attendance: 8,626.

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