Johns Hopkins had gone its first two games without scoring a goal in the first quarter.
The Blue Jays snapped that streak in a big way Tuesday night at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. There, Hopkins scored five goals from five different players in the first 15 minutes, led 9-2 at halftime and never looked back en route to a 15-6 victory at an extremely cold UMBC Stadium.
Freshmen continued to play a prominent role for Hopkins during the early part of the season as midfielder Michael Kimmel had three goals and attack Stven Boyle had a goal and three assists. Also, senior attack Jake Byrne had two goals and two assists while junior midfielder Stephen Peyser had two goals and an assist for the Blue Jays (2-1).
UMBC appeared a step behind all evening and showed many signs of a team that just played in its third game in four days. The Retrievers (2-2) split a pair of games over the weekend when they defeated Air Force Saturday before losing to host-Denver Sunday in the Pioneer Face-off Classic in Colorado. On Tuesday, UMBC fell behind 8-0 before senior attack Drew Westervelt scored off a pass from fellow senior attack Andy Gallagher with 2:23 left in the first half.
“It?s a good lesson for us to have to learn to play in different circumstances,” Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala said. “It was really good for us to have to travel over here. UMBC was in a difficult situation to play two games in the Midwest in Denver and then travel back and play again, it was a tough thing to do.
“But I thought we did the things we needed to do. I was very pleased with the first half. I thought we got a little sloppy in the second half. Those are things we have to learn to manage better because in the big picture you want to do everything right for 60 minutes.
Senior attackmen Drew Westervelt and Andy Gallagher had three goals and a goal and two assists, respectively for the Retrievers. Still, UMBC coach Don Zimmerman refused to use the rough early-season schedule as an excuse for his team?s performance.
“I more than challenged this team,” Zimmerman said. “You set your schedule a year in advance and last year we had a different team all together. We had some older kids on the team who we lost. Now we have a bunch of younger guys. This was obviously a stiff challenge. But I told them this is why you come to play lacrosse and to measure yourself.”
Hopkins used Tuesday game to continue building the momentum from this past Saturday?s 7-6 overtime win over Princeton in the Inside Lacrosse Face-off Classic at M&T Bank Stadium. It also marked the second straight game Pietramala defeated one of his mentors. Princeton coach Bill Tierney is a former Hopkins assistant who coached Pietramala as a player while Zimmerman was the Blue Jays head coach during the same time.
Johns Hopkins next plays at noon Saturday when it hosts Hofstra at Homewood Field. UMBC also returns to action Saturday afternoon when it hosts Pennsylvania at 1.
“Every game we?re learning and hopefully we can peak at the right time at the end of the season when it really counts,” Kimmel said.
