Division I Men :      May 8, 2004 [ The Game Story]
Loyola 7 Johns Hopkins 11 Scoring: Scoring: Stephen Brundage Jordan Rabidou Patrick Kennedy Pat Shek Greg Leonard Joe Landry Tony Ferreira Chris Einhorn (1, 1) (1, 1) (1, 1) (1, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) (0, 1) Conor Ford Kevin Boland Greg Peyser Kyle Harrison Matt Rewkowski Kyle Barrie Kyle Dowd (3, 1) (0, 3) (1, 2) (2, 1) (2, 0) (2, 0) (1, 0) Saves: Saves: Michael Fretwell 13  (0.542) Scott Smith 7  (0.500) Current Record :     (4-8) Current Record :     (11-1) Team Page For 2004 Team Page For 2004       The Game Story: BALTIMORE, MD - Loyola rallied from a seven-goal second-half deficit and put a scare in No. 1 Johns Hopkins, but it wasn?t nearly enough as the Blue Jays ended the regular season with an 11-7 win over the Greyhounds at Diane Geppi-Aikens Field. Senior Stephen Brundage scored in his last game at Evergreen, ending the season with a team-high 20 goals. The story, however, was Loyola?s freshmen, who tallied five of the ?Hounds seven goals. All five coming in a 6-2 Loyola run that cut Johns Hopkins lead from seven goals to three. The Blue Jays went up early with two goals from Conor Ford and two goals from Kyle Barrie. The Jays held a 5-0 lead before Brundage knocked in Loyola?s first goal, a turn-around shot that caught Hopkins? goalie Scott Smith off-guard. The Blue Jays scored the next three and early in the third quarter the lead stood at 8-1. Freshman Tony Ferreira gave the ?Hounds some life with an unassisted goal at 9:55 of the third quarter. Hopkins answered and as the fourth quarter began, the score was 9-2. ?Our guys never gave up,? says Loyola Head Coach Bill Dirrigl. ?They battled the whole game and I?m proud of them for that.? Sticking to their game plan, Loyola played a possession game and when the opportunity arose, freshman Patrick Kennedy converted, scoring an extra-man goal off a dish from Brundage. Freshmen Joe Landry and Greg Leonard scored the next two goals, Leonard?s goal being Loyola?s second man-up goal of the period, and the ?Hounds trailed 9-5. Kyle Harrison ended Loyola?s 3-0 run, scoring seven seconds after Leonard?s goal. The ?Hounds still battled and when freshman Jordan Rabidou fired home a goal at 6:27, the score was 10-6. Junior Pat Shek made it 10-7 with a goal at 5:36, but Loyola would not get any closer. Matt Rewkowski scored the game?s final goal at 2:06 for the final four-goal margin. Sophomore Michael Fretwell registered 13 saves in goal for Loyola while picking up a season-high five groundballs. Brundage, Kennedy and Rabidou all added assists to their goals and finished the game with two points, freshman Matt Cassalia had five groundballs while winning 8-of-17 faceoffs. ?Since I?ve been coach at Loyola, we?ve had problems with Syracuse, Georgetown and Johns Hopkins,? says Dirrigl. ?Those games have gotten out of hand and this season, although the wins don?t show it, we?ve hung in there. I think we have a lot to look forward to with Loyola Lacrosse.? Johns Hopkins, 11-1 overall, ends the season with the nation?s top ranking and will have the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Greyhounds end the year at 4-8 with seven losses to ranked opponents. Brundage, who led the ?Hounds in scoring with 31 points this season, ends his collegiate career with 88 goals and 143 total points.

Baltimore, MD – Johns Hopkins held Loyola to a scoreless 1st quarter, along with allowing only one goal in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, en route to an 11-7 victory over Loyola College. For Hopkins, Conor Ford led the way with three goals and an assist. Kevin Boland contributed with three assists, Kyle Harrison added two goals with an assist, while Greg Peyser had two assists with one goal. Both Matt Rewkowski and Kyle Barrie chipped in with two goals. For Loyola, their seven goals were scored by seven different players with senior Stephen Brundage, and freshmen Pat Kennedy and Jordan Rabidou going one and one (1 goal, 1 assist).

Neither team was able to score, as both traded possessions to start the game with a quick Hopkins turnover and then a long sustained Loyola possession which ended in a turnover. Conor Ford got the scoring started for the Blue Jays at the 6:48 mark. Within a minute and a half, Greg Pyser had picked off a pass on the defensive end and taken it the length of the field finishing it himself and Ford struck again, to put the Blue Jays up 3-0. Kyle Barrie would finish out the 1st quarter scoring, leaving Hopkins with a 4-0 lead heading into the 2nd.

The 2nd quarter started in a similar fashion to 1st’s end: Barrie put Hopkins up 5-0 off a Kyle Harrison feed. Loyola would finally get on the board in the 2nd, as senior captain Stephen Brundage, in his last collegiate game, received a pass as he was coming up from X. Brundage was able to get just slightly top-side on his defenseman giving him the space to jump and put the ball in the bottom corner past Hopkins’ goalie, Scott Smith.

Conor Ford would get back into the action by completing his hat trick off another Kevin Boland feed at the 6:43 mark. Ford would reverse his role shortly after to feed Kyle Harrison to send the game into halftime with a clear 7-1 Hopkins advantage.

The 3rd period wasn’t much different as it seemed that Hopkins was slowly pulling away. Matt Rewkowski added a goal 2:32 into the 3rd to bring the lead to 8-1. Freshman Tony Ferreira momentarily stopped the bleeding as he finished a fast break started by Damian Hall forcing a turnover on the Loyola defensive side. Kyle Dowd would add his 8th goal of the season to put Hopkins comfortably ahead 9-2 heading into the final quarter.

A different Loyola team seemed to come out of the gates for the 4th quarter, as did a different Johns Hopkins team. Freshman Patrick Kennedy made Hopkins pay on a man-up opportunity as he took a Brundage feed and cut the lead to 6. With 9:42 left in the game, Joe Landry took a Jordan Rabidou feed to bring it down to 5. Again on the man-up, a minute and a half later Kennedy found Greg Leonard to bring the game to within 4.

Hopkins immediately responded as Greg Peyser won the face-off and fed Kyle Harrison who blasted it past Loyola goalie, Michael Fretwell, less than seven seconds after the Leonard goal. Loyola would again make it interesting adding a Jordan Rabidou goal at 6:27 off a perfectly placed shot and a Pat Shek goal at 5:36. While Hopkins was willing to bend a little there, they certainly didn’t break. 10-7 would be as close as Loyola would get. Matt Rewkowski would add another goal at 2:06 to give the Blue Jays the 11-7 victory.

For Loyola, this game ended a 4-8 season that had high inspirations at the beginning, with the transfer of Matt Monfett to complement Stephen Brundage on attack. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Five of their seven scorers today were freshmen; sophomore goalie, Michael Fretwell, made 13 saves in net. It would seem the program is in good hands for the next couple of years, as these young players have gained experience this year.

Hopkins was nearly perfect today on clearing (16 of 18), only required 7 saves of Scott Smith, and won 14 of 22 faceoffs. They, however, failed to capitalize on any of their 5 extra man opportunities, and only held a slight groundball advantage (31 to 28). It was obvious at the beginning of the 4th that Hopkins wasn’t really in the game, and seemed to get rattled giving Loyola a few extra man opportunities.

For Hopkins along with quite a few other teams, it is time to wait and see what the NCAA Tournament has in store for them. Hopkins will most likely gain the #1 seed, but coach Dave Pietramala himself said it best at the end of the game: “I’d rather not have it [the #1 seed] and win a national championship. We’ve had it, but we didn’t finish the drill, so to speak. I’m not concerned about what the committee does, I’m just excited to be in it, now we just have to go play.” Pietramala also added, “Now its win-or-go home and its time to talk about that…we’ll talk about having more of a sense of urgency, we haven’t really talked about that yet.” There are still a few teams sitting at home, waiting to see if they get the chance to step into the tourney. Their fates will be decided shortly.