Johns Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala had not been pleased with his team?s performance during the preseason leading up to its opener against Albany on Saturday.
But the two Blue Jays singled out by Pietramala ? sophomore goalie Mike Gvozden and senior attacker Kevin Huntley ? for their strong play this winter proved why their coach thought so highly of them in a 10-5 victory over Albany. Gvozden made 11 saves and Huntley had four goals and an assist to highlight a dominating effort in front of 1,993 fans at Homewood Field a year after the Blue Jays were stunned by the Great Danes, 8-7.
Top-ranked Hopkins (1-0) improved to 6-2 in season openers under Pietramala, who has the daunting task of preparing the defending national champions to play in front of more than 20,000 fans against fifth-ranked Princeton (1-0) on Saturday afternoon at 2:30 at M&T Bank Stadium as part of Inside Lacrosse?s Face-Off Classic. Princeton won its season opener against Canisius, 13-6, on Saturday. Third-ranked Virginia (1-0) and eighth-ranked Syracuse (1-0) play in the event?s first game at noon.
“I?m pleased because I don?t feel like we performed well at all in our preseason scrimmages,” Pietramala said. “Coming in, we were a little concerned what we were going to do defensively. We have not been good defensively. I thought we did a good job, but not a great job [Saturday].”
Hopkins answered those questions as it held Albany (0-1) scoreless for a span of more than 27 minutes, marking the seventh time since the start of last season it held an opponent without a goal for at least 25 minutes.
Gvozden said he was pleased to get past his first start, as the former Severna Park standout took over for three-year starter Jesse Schwartzman, who was the Most Outstanding Player in two NCAA Tournaments.
“It feels really good to get a start under my belt,” Gvozden said. “There was a lot of build up. Our defense played phenomenally and that made it easier on me. They forced a lot of low-percentage shots, which allowed me to ease into the game. It feels good to get a win and it wasn?t a nail-biter, which helped, too. There were plenty of butterflies today, but just getting one under my belt will make it easier next week [against Princeton.]”
Huntley?s performance against Albany was the continuation of his play from last season?s NCAA Tournament, when the former Calvert Hall star scored 11 of his 22 goals, including the game-winner in the NCAA final against Duke.
Huntley said it was important for him to get off to a good start as he fills the void left by the graduation of Jake Byrne, who scored a team-high 30 goals to go along with seven assists.
“After the way things started off for me last year after getting off to a slow start and not working as hard as I should have, I wanted to carry some things over from how I played toward the end of last season,” Huntley said. “This is my last go at it as a senior and I wanted to end things on the right foot, so I?ve just been doing the extra things and it has paid off.”
