There’s not much Johns Hopkins hasn’t experienced through the first three games of its men’s lacrosse season.
Coming off a thrilling double-overtime win Saturday against Princeton, Hopkins played in a completely different type of game Tuesday night, as it jumped out to an 8-0 lead and never looked back in a 15-6 win over host University of Maryland-Baltimore County.
Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala said his team learned something from both of those games, as well as a season-opening 8-7 loss to Albany in which the Blue Jays rallied from a 5-0 deficit to make it close. What impressed Pietramala most is how well his team performed in front of 1,427 fans at a blistering cold UMBC Stadium after playing before an NCAA regular-season record 20,180 fans against Princeton at M&T Bank Stadium. The Blue Jays (2-1) next play Saturday against visiting Hofstra (1-1).
“I thought we did the things we needed to do,” Pietramala said. “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.”
As for UMBC, it appeared a step behind all evening and showed many signs of a team that played three games in four days. The Retrievers (2-2) split a pair of gamesin Colorado over the weekend, defeating Air Force Saturday before losing to host Denver Sunday in the Pioneer Face-off Classic.
UMBC, which hosts Pennsylvania (3-1) Saturday, didn’t scored against Hopkins until Drew Westervelt scored off a pass from fellow senior attack Andy Gallagher with 2:23 left in the first half.
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.”
COLLEGE LACROSSE NOTES
» Johns Hopkins? 15-6 win over UMBC Tuesday moved coach Dave Pietramala into sole possession of fourth place on the school’s career coaching victories list. He is now 74-16 at Hopkins, passing current UMBC coach Don Zimmerman.
» Hopkins goalie Jesse Schwartzman had 13 saves against UMBC. In his last two games, he has 30 saves and only 12 goals allowed.
» Hopkins midfielder Michael Kimmel had three goals in the win, while attack Steven Boyle had a goal and three assists.
