The Game
• Johns Hopkins hits the road for the first time in 2020 as the Blue Jays (1-0) make the short trip to Loyola Maryland (0-1).
• The Blue Jays opened the season with a 15-7 win over Towson last Saturday at Homewood Field. Also last Saturday, the Greyhounds dropped a tight 12-9 decision at defending national champion Virginia.
The Facts
« This is the 133rd season of Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse. JHU first fielded a team in 1883.
« Johns Hopkins enters this week's game with an all-time record of 992-342-15.
« JHU owns 44 national championships with nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA crowns to its credit.
In February
« This week's game against Loyola will be the 42nd all-time for Johns Hopkins in the month of February.
« JHU is 29-12 (.707) all-time in games played in the month of February.
« Johns Hopkins played its first game in the month of February in 1998, didn't play again in February until 2004 and has now played at least one game in the opening month of the season every year since 2006.
Poll Position
« Johns Hopkins is ranked 10th in this week's USILA Coaches Poll and 11th in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll. The Blue Jays made slight jumps from 11th (USILA) and 13th (Inside Lacrosse Media) in the preseason polls after last week's season-opening win. Loyola is ranked 16th in both polls this week.
Series History
« This week's game will be the 57th between Johns Hopkins and Loyola. The series dates to a 20-1 Blue Jay victory in 1939.
« JHU leads the all-time series 48-8, although Loyola has won two straight and five of the last six against Johns Hopkins.
« The visiting team has won four of the last nine games in the series.
On This Date
« Johns Hopkins has played just one game on February 15 as the Blue Jays topped Towson, 15-8, on this date in 2014.
« Of note that day against Towson - Ryan Brown, Brandon Benn and John Crawley all scored four goals for the Blue Jays in the victory. That remains the last time Johns Hopkins has had three or more players score four or more goals in a game.
Johns Hopkins-Loyola Ties
« Johns Hopkins associate head coach Bill Dwan is the older brother of Loyola assistant coach Matt Dwan.
« Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala spent the 1993 and 1994 seasons as an assistant coach at Loyola under the direction of former Greyhound coach Dave Cottle.
« This week's men's game is the second game of a doubleheader, which starts with the Blue Jay women taking on Loyola at 12 pm. The Johns Hopkins women's team is coached by Janine Tucker, who was a standout women's lacrosse player at Loyola from 1986-89.
Williams Fuels Victory
« Senior attackman Cole Williams scored three goals and added four assists for seven points to fuel the 15-7 win over Towson in the season opener.
« The four assists and seven points were both career highs for Williams, who added three ground balls in the win and was named to the USILA Team of the Week for his efforts.
« Williams bumped his career totals to 71 goals and 41 assists for 112 points with his seven-point effort.
« The seven points are the most by a Johns Hopkins player in a season opener since Ryan Brown had seven in a 16-4 win over UMBC in the 2015 season opener.
« In his last 11 games dating back to last season, Williams has 24 goals and 17 assists for 41 points and has registered at least two points in all 11 of those game and three or more points in eight of the 11.
First-Time Starters
« Johns Hopkins trotted out a lineup that included four first-time starters last Saturday against Towson.
« Junior Brett Baskin played 27 games in his first two seasons, but got the first start of his career on attack. He scored one goal in the victory.]« Sophomore midfielder Evan Zinn played in all 16 games last season and responded with two goals and one assist in his first career start last week against the Tigers.
« Senior Jack Lyne and sophomore Owen McManus both earned starts on close defense in the opener against Towson. Lyne had played in two career games (both in 2018) as an LSM and McManus played in 11 games last season as freshman at SSDM. They helped hold the Tigers to just seven goals in the victory.
Degnon, Murphy Net First Career Goals
« Sophomore midfielder Garrett Degnon scored three goals in the win against the Tigers - the first three goals of his career. Freshman attackman Owen Murphy scored one goal and added one assist in the victory. His lone goal came on the first shot of his career.
Holding Them Down
« The Johns Hopkins defense, with two new starters on close defense, a new regular at the #1 LSM spot and a freshman at the other and three of four SSDMs seeing the first extensive playing time of their career, turned in a strong effort against Towson.
« The Blue Jays held the Tigers scoreless for stretches of 17:42, 15:18 and 13:36 to fuel the victory.
« Towson scored just once in the first 20:08 of the game, then scored five goals in a span of just over 11 minutes before being held to just one goal over the final 28:54.
Prouty, Narewski Off to Quick Starts
« Junior Kyle Prouty and sophomore Matt Narewski combined to win 20-of-26 faceoffs with 12 ground balls and one goal in the win against Towson. Prouty went 14-of-19 and had eight ground balls, while Narewski was 6-of-7 with four ground balls and one goal.
« Did you know that Prouty (229) and Narewski (211) combined to take 440 of the 450 faceoffs Johns Hopkins attempted during the 2019 season? Johns Hopkins is one of just two teams in the nation that returns two players who attempted 200 or more faceoffs last season.
« The only other team in the nation with two players returning who took 200+ faceoffs in 2019 is Brown (Matt McShea, Jason Simaan).
Extra-Extra
'« Johns Hopkins finished fifth in the nation in extra-man offense last season as the Blue Jays converted on 26-of-57 (.456) EMO chances and opened the 2020 season by converting on 1-of-2 against Towson.
« Players who totaled 19 of those 26 extra-man goals return as Joey Epstein (6), Alex Concannon (6), Forry Smith (4) and Luke Shilling (3) were all part of the Blue Jay EMO unit in 2019.
« Clicking at better than 40% on extra-man is nothing new for the Blue Jays as JHU has converted on 40% or better in seven of the last eight years and nine of 13 seasons under offensive coordinator Bobby Benson.
In Case We Get The
« Johns Hopkins is 27-17 (.614) in overtime under the direction of head coach Dave Pietramala. JHU's last overtime game came in the championship game of the 2019 Big Ten Tournament. The Blue Jays dropped an 18-17 decision to top-ranked Penn State in that game.
« Johns Hopkins has won seven of its last 11 overtime games.
One-Goal Wonders
« Including the 18-17 overtime loss to Penn State on May 4, 2019, Johns Hopkins is 56-28 (.667) in one-goal games under head coach Dave Pietramala.
« The Blue Jays were 4-1 in one-goal games in 2018 and are 6-3 in their last nine one-goal games.
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