Hopkins Extends Mastery Over Navy

Johns Hopkins 15, Navy 7

BALTIMORE, April 18 -- Amid a sea of sky blue and white at Homewood Field, the Johns Hopkins and Navy men's lacrosse teams met Saturday for the 83rd time. And if Navy had dreams of spoiling homecoming and ending a 35-game losing streak to the Blue Jays, they were quickly doused.

Hopkins scored four second-quarter goals in a span of 2 minutes 40 seconds -- senior Brian Christopher had two of them -- and junior Steven Boyle had a career-high seven points (three goals, four assists) to lead the Blue Jays to a 15-7 victory before a capacity crowd of more than 7,000.

"It's probably the first time this year that we've played 60 minutes of lacrosse," said Hopkins Coach Dave Pietramala, who notched his 125th career win (102nd in 12 seasons at Hopkins). "We certainly picked a good time to do it.

"The Navy team is well coached and well conditioned."

No. 9 Hopkins (6-4), the NCAA runner-up a year ago, has been up and down this season, losing consecutive games to Syracuse, Virginia and North Carolina by a combined five goals last month, but rebounding with wins over No. 18 Albany and No. 12 Maryland. No. 11 Navy, on the other hand, had won nine of 12 games, including wins over Maryland, Georgetown and Ohio State.

Navy scored two minutes in and led, 3-2, after the first quarter, giving the Midshipmen faithful hope that the NCAA Division I record for consecutive losses to one opponent -- Navy last beat Hopkins in 1974 -- might end. But the Blue Jays' midfield faceoff circle dominance proved too much. Junior Michael Powers and sophomore Matt Dolente consistently won faceoffs over Navy juniors Frankie Coppola and Robby Battle, and early in the second quarter the Blue Jays started connecting.

Christopher had a gorgeous goal to tie it at 3, stopping on a dime, spinning past his defender and firing past goalie Tommy Phelan from eight yards. Mark Goodrich gave Hopkins the lead for good a minute later by batting the ball out of the air into the net, and Mark Bryan and Christopher scored back-to-back within the next 90 seconds for a 6-3 lead.

"Right there we started to lose the edge," said Phelan, who made 15 saves under a barrage of 45 shots.

Said Navy junior Patrick Moran (team-high three goals): "We couldn't get up on them [by a few goals] . . . . When we had opportunities to shoot, pass and catch, we just didn't catch enough of them."

Hopkins increased its lead to 8-4 at halftime thanks to a terrific effort by Michael Kimmel. Double-teamed and being chased, Kimmel threw across his body and across the field to Boyle, who stuffed home a goal five seconds before halftime.

Even on missed shots, Phelan often failed to secure the rebound, and alert Hopkins players pounced on the ball and reset the offense.

-- VIRGINIA 13, DARTMOUTH 6: Brian Carroll, Garrett Billings and Steve Giannone each scored three goals in a home win for the No. 2 Cavaliers (13-1), who trailed 5-3 at halftime against the Big Green (4-9).

-- GEORGETOWN 10, U-MASS. 7: Scott Kocis and Jake Samperton scored three goals apiece for the Hoyas (6-6, 2-3 ECAC) in their road victory against the 12th-ranked Minutemen (7-1, 4-1).

-- MARYLAND 9, PENNSYLVANIA 2: Eight players scored for the No. 14 Terrapins (8-5) against the host Quakers (3-8).