BALTIMORE, MD - The fifth-ranked Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team sprinted out to a 5-1 halftime lead and held off a furious second-half rally by visiting Hofstra to win its third straight game and improve to 3-1 overall with a 9-8 victory against the Pride in front of 1,503 at Homewood Field Saturday afternoon. The Blue Jays improve to 16-3 all-time against Hofstra.
The Blue Jays led 5-1 at the half on the strength of two goals in the final minute of the second quarter, but the Pride out-scored Hopkins 4-1 in the third quarter to make it a 6-5 game entering the fourth quarter. Freshman attackman Dan Stein scored all three of his goals in the period and Tom Dooley scored the first of his two to account for the four goals for Hofstra in the third quarter. A Kevin Huntley goal with 3:47 remaining snapped a quarter-opening three-goal surge for Hofstra that had sliced the 5-1 lead to 5-4, but Stein's third goal of the period with just 22 seconds left made it 6-5 entering the final quarter.
The Blue Jays grabbed some breathing room with two goals in the first 75 seconds of the fourth quarter as junior Paul Rabil scored an unassisted goal just 40 seconds into the period and classmate Michael Doneger added an extra-man goal 34 seconds later to make it 8-5. Rabil worked his way from behind the goal and scored in heavy traffic, while Doneger one-time a pass from the side of the goal from freshman Michael Kimmel.
Dooley's second goal of the game was answered by an unassisted goal by Kimmel to make it 9-6 with just under 13 minutes remaining, but Hofstra had one more push remaining.
An unassisted goal by Mike Unterstein with 7:57 remaining made it 9-7 and freshman Tom Interlicchio made it 9-8 with an unassisted goal of his own four minutes later. Both teams had chances in the final two minutes, but neither could connect. Hopkins eventually worked the clock down to the final 15 seconds before Hofstra came up with a loose ball and called timeout in the offensive zone with four seconds remaining. The Pride set an offensive play for Dooley, who fired high while fading away from the goal from 12 yards out as time expired.
Holding on in the second half didn't look like it would be necessary for the Blue Jays, who seemed in complete control in the first half, but couldn't put any distance between themselves and the Pride until late in the second quarter. After nearly 15 scoreless minutes freshman Steven Boyle finally put one home when he dodged from behind and beat Hofstra goalie Danny Orlando while coming from the side.
Senior Jake Byrne scored back-to-back goals in a span of just over three minutes midway through the second quarter to push the lead to 3-0 before Zachary Heyl notched an extra-man goal with 2:57 remaining in the period to make it 3-1. That score stood until Boyle scored twice in the final 59 seconds of the half to account for the 5-1 halftime score. Byrne hit Boyle cutting from behind the goal and Boyle punched it home with 59 seconds remaining and he added his second unassisted goal of the half with just 10 seconds remaining before intermission. The four-goal lead lasted less than a minute into the third quarter before Stein started Hofstra's comeback with the first of his three goals.
Boyle led the Blue Jays with his three goals and improved his team-leading total to eight goals through four games. He also leads the team with 12 points. Byrne added the two goals and two assists and Kimmel ran his consecutive game multi-point streak to four with the one goal and one assist. Huntley also added a goal and an assist for Hopkins, which held a 30-22 advantage in shots and won 11-of-20 faceoffs, including 5-of-7 in the pivotal fourth quarter.
Stein's three-goal effort paced the Pride, who also got the two goals and one assist from Dooley and 13 saves from Orlando. The Pride matched the Blue Jays in ground balls (30-30), but turned the ball over 12 times and failed on six clears.
Hopkins, which improved to 26-6 in one-goal games under head coach Dave Pietramala, will next be in action next Saturday when the Blue Jays play at Syracuse. Hofstra will host Princeton next Saturday.
