Division I Men :      April 15, 2006 [ The Game Story]
Johns Hopkins 4 Maryland 11 Scoring: Scoring: Jake Byrne Stephen Peyser Tom Duerr Brian Christopher (1, 1) (1, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) Joe Walters Michael Phipps Drew Evans Bill Mcglone Travis Holmes Brendan Healy Xander Ritz Maxwell Ritz (6, 2) (0, 2) (0, 2) (2, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) (0, 1) Saves: Saves: Jesse Schwartzman 11  (0.500) Harry Alford 9  (0.692) Current Record :     (5-4) Current Record :     (7-3) Team Page For 2006 Team Page For 2006       The Game Story:

Early in the first quarter, the Jays and Terps seemed to be feeling each other out a bit, as there weren’t many exciting possessions. Just over five minutes into the game, the Terps drew first blood when Walters found junior midfielder Travis Holmes for a nice finish past JHU goalie Jesse Schwartzman. The Terps controlled the ball for most of the quarter and Walters recorded his first goal off a Mike Phipps feed with about two minutes remaining in the period. The JHU offense already showed signs of struggling, as Maryland’s D was forcing them into some uncharacteristically short possessions and poor turnovers.

Hopkins scored on their first possession of the 2nd quarter on a man-up opportunity when Tom Duerr ripped the lower right corner of the cage from the front-right off a Jake Byrne feed. If lax goals still had the little triangles in the bottom corners, this shot would have been right in the heart of it. At 2-1, it seemed JHU could be right back in the game, but things quickly turned sour for the Jays as Joe Walters had other plans.

Walters scored under minute after Duerr's goal on an unassisted effort coming around the left side of the goal from X. Hopkins struggled terribly in their clearing game for the rest of the half, allowing the Terps to dominate possession time and wear down the JHU D. Midway through the quarter, Walters fired a feed through traffic to Xander Ritz who finished, making the score 4-1 Terps. Exactly a minute later, Walters completed a first half hat-trick when Max Ritz found him on man-up. Hopkins scored with about two minutes left in the period when Brian Christopher knifed through the Terp D on a nice individual effort, but the Terps again had an answer. With only 15 seconds left in the half, Bill McGlone converted a Drew Evans feed to give the Terps a 6-2 advantage at the break.

The third quarter was played at a much slower pace, largely because the Terps again controlled possession time and started to deliberately lengthen their possessions and shorten the game. McGlone scored on a nice sidearm ripper early in the quarter off a Phipps feed. Stephen Peyser, who has been hampered by injury this season, showed what he is capable of when he dodged into the teeth of the Maryland D and finished a blast past Harry Alford. Unfortunately, that was about all the offense Hopkins could muster in the quarter as they began to play very frantically under the pressure of the Maryland lead, which led to far too many short and ineffective possessions. Walters scored his 4th goal of the game late in the quarter on another nice individual move.

Maryland really began to milk the clock early in the fourth quarter, and the Hopkins defensive unit, who had played defense for almost the entire game couldn’t really pressure the Terps because of fatigue. Terp midi Brendan Healy scored a couple minutes into the quarter when he swept across the middle of the field from the top-right spot and finished low past Schwartzman. With 9 minutes left in the game and down by six goals, the Jays began to try and create turnovers. Walters was doubled on the endline and Schwartzman was out of the cage shutting off a Terp player. Walters beat the double team and was able to casually toss the ball into the back of the net for his 5th. A few minutes later, Walters uncorked a rocket from in front of the goal off an Evans feed, recording his 6th and final goal of the game. Jake Byrne gave Hopkins their final goal with about 5 minutes remaining, and the rest of the game was largely eaten up by long Maryland possessions.

This is a huge win for the Terps. They had dropped their last two games this season, their last four against Hopkins, and hadn’t won at Homewood since the Clinton administration. The Terp O was very efficient, managing their possessions well and controlling the clock throughout the game. The Terp D challenged the young Hopkins offense physically and JHU couldn’t find an answer to the pressure. Joe Walters was an absolute terror all night, feeding off the hostile JHU crowd. He likely secured himself as a finalist for the Tewaarton and at this point looks like the clear #1 pick in the MLL draft. Obviously this is a tough loss for Hopkins who is still struggling to find a real initiator on the offensive end besides Paul Rabil. In this up and down season in Division I, don’t be surprised if Petro has Hopkins in the thick of it a month from now.