March 6, 2008

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Setting the Scene: Johns Hopkins and Hofstra meet for the 20th time in a series that dates to an 18-10 Johns Hopkins win in 1974 NCAA Quarterfinals. The Blue Jays enter the game against the Pride with a 3-0 record, while Hofstra is 1-1.

Looking Back: Johns Hopkins ran its winning streak to 12 games with a 10-8 win over a pesky UMBC team at Homewood Field Tuesday night. After an 8-4 season-opening loss to UMass, Hofstra picked up its first win of the season with a 7-6 victory over Brown last Saturday at Shuart Stadium.

These are the Facts: Johns Hopkins enters the game against Hofstra with an all-time record of 874-272-15 (.759). The Blue Jays own nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 44 championships.

Yes, That's 602 Games Over .500: Tuesday's win against UMBC improved the Blue Jays' all-time record to 874-272-15 ... that's 602 games over .500. To put this in perspective: JHU has played an average of just under 15 games per season under head coach Dave Pietramala. Using a 15-game season as a reference, if the Blue Jays posted a 5-10 record for 120 straight seasons, they would still be two games over .500.

Poll Position: Johns Hopkins sits atop the USILA Preseason Coaches Poll and the Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll this week. Hofstra is not ranked in either the coaches poll or the media poll.

As Number One: Tuesday's game against UMBC was the 52nd the Blue Jays have played under head coach Dave Pietramala as the top-ranked team in the nation. With the win the Blue Jays improved to 45-7 (.865) under Pietramala when playing with the number-one ranking. In the five years prior to Pietramala taking over in 2001 (1996-2001), JHU played exactly one game as the top ranked team in the nation.

125th Anniversary: The 2008 season marks the 125th anniversary of the Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse program. The Blue Jays are wearing commemorative patches on their uniforms for the 125th anniversary of the program (it is NOT the 125th season) and the logo is being used in a variety of printed pieces to promote the anniversary.

Program Ties: There are several ties between the Johns Hopkins and Hofstra men's lacrosse programs. Among them:

• Current Hofstra head coach Seth Tierney is a 1991 Johns Hopkins graduate and was a teammate for two years with current JHU head coach Dave Pietramala. He was a four-year teammate of current JHU associate head coach Bill Dwan and the pair were two of JHU's three captains in 1991 (current Penn head coach Brian Voelker was the other co-captain that year).
• Current Hofstra assistant coach Matt Rewkowski is a 2005 Johns Hopkins graduate and played two years as a midfielder at Hopkins (2004-05). He was a co-captain on the Blue Jays' 2005 NCAA Championship team.

One-Goal Turnarounds: The 12-11 win over Duke in the 2007 NCAA Championship game improved Hopkins' recent run of success in one-goal games as JHU is 30-6 in one-goal games under head coach Dave Pietramala. The Blue Jays have won 17 of their last 19 and 21 of their last 24 one-goal games. In the five seasons prior to Pietramala arriving (1996-2000) the Blue Jays were 5-8 in one-goal games.

More One-Goal Notes: The Blue Jays have come from behind to win 14 times during their last 17 one-goal wins. In 10 of those 14 come-from-behind one-goal wins the Blue Jays have come back from a deficit of two goals or more. The latest of these come-from-behind one-goal wins came against Notre Dame, when the Blue Jays erased a 4-1 second-quarter deficit.

In Case We Go Extra: In addition to the Blue Jays' success in one-goal games under head coach Dave Pietramala, Johns Hopkins has also enjoyed a favorable run in overtime games. The Blue Jays have currently won nine straight overtime games dating back to a 10-9 win at Navy in 2004. JHU is 13-2 all-time in overtime under Pietramala's guidance, including an impressive 6-1 in overtime games played on the road.

Players on the 2008 team who scored game-winning goals in overtime during their career:
• Senior Kevin Huntley punched home the game-winner in the second OT against Duke in 2005.
• Junior Brian Christopher scored 1:22 into OT against Loyola on May 6, 2006.
• Senior Paul Rabil fired home the game-winner 56 seconds into the 2nd OT against Princeton on March 3, 2007 and tallied the game-winner 43 seconds into overtime at Maryland (4-14-07). He is the only player in school history who has scored two overtime game-winners in the same season.
• Sophomore Michael Kimmel became the first freshman in school history to score an overtime goal in an NCAA Tournament game when he netted the game-winner one-minute into overtime against Notre Dame last season.

Comeback Kids: The Blue Jays trailed - albeit briefly- vs. Albany and as late as early in the third quarter of Tuesday night's win over UMBC. Johns Hopkins came from behind to win eight times last season, including six times during the season-ending nine-game winning streak. JHU trailed in its first two NCAA Tournament games, but never trailed during the Final Four.

Streaking: Johns Hopkins is 68-11 in its last 79 regular season games dating back to the end of the 2001 season and is 80-15 overall since the start of the 2002 season.

Win Streaks Under Petro: Johns Hopkins ended the 2007 season with a nine-game winning streak and has pushed the streak to 12 in a row with three straight wins to open the 2008 season. The 12-game winning streak is the fifth wining streak of eight games or longer under head coach Dave Pietramala and is currently the second-longest winning streak in his tenure.

A Defensive Group: Johns Hopkins held all 17 of its opponents scoreless for a span of least 9:30 last season and held the opposition scoreless for a span of 10:45 or longer 23 times during the 2007 season. The Blue Jays have picked up right where they left off last season as they held Albany scoreless for a streak of 27:03 during the season-opening win and kept Princeton off the board for the first 23:04 last Saturday. The streak of over 27 scoreless minutes for the Great Danes marks the seventh time since the start of the 2007 season that Hopkins has held an opponent scoreless for 25 minutes or longer. Other scoreless streak notes of interest:

• JHU has held the opposition scoreless for a streak of 14 minutes or longer 22 times since the start of the 2007 season, including five times in three games this season.
• The Blue Jays have held eight of their last nine opponents - including all three this season - scoreless for a stretch of at least 18 minutes.

More Defensive: Albany scored its first goal just 36 seconds into the game against JHU. The Great Danes scored exactly one more goal in the next 41:21.

Still More Defensive: Princeton scored exactly one goal in the first 35:18 against JHU.

Don't Forget the Offense: While the focus of any Dave Pietramala-coached team will always be defense, the Blue Jay offense has gotten off to a good start this season. Consider:

• The 34 goals the Blue Jays have scored are the most in the first three games of a season since 2004, when JHU scored 41 goals in the first three games.
• As a team the Blue Jays have scored on 32.7% of their shots through three games (34-of-104). JHU connected on 28.8% of its shots en route to winning the national championship a year ago.
• Dating back to the end of last season, JHU has scored in double figures eight times in its last nine games and is averaging 11.8 goals per game during that time.

More Offense: Johns Hopkins has scored at least one goal in all 12 quarters this season and has scored more than one goal in 11 of the 12 quarters thus far.

Playing the Possession Game: JHU has won the ground ball war in each of its first three games and JHU has a 113-88 ground ball advantage on the year (+8.3 GBs per game). JHU held a 40-31 advantage on GBs against Princeton one week after taking the same battle by a 40-29 count against Albany.

Kevin and Dave Huntley Make History: When Johns Hopkins slipped past Duke, 12-11, for the national championship last spring, there were plenty of members of the Huntley family in high spirits. After all, then junior attackman Kevin Huntley scored three times in the title game and punched home what proved to be the game-winning goal with 3:25 remaining in the fourth quarter. The national championship is the second for the Blue Jays since Huntley arrived in 2005.
A little research reveals that Huntley's game-winner also lifted he and his father, Dave, into the record books. Dave Huntley was a standout midfielder for Johns Hopkins from 1976-79 and was a member of the Blue Jays' 1978 and 1979 NCAA Championship teams.
It is believed that Dave and Kevin Huntley are the first father and son to win multiple NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championships as players. There are sets of brothers who have won multiple titles (Gary and Paul Gait) and fathers who have coached their sons to championships (Henry Ciccarone, Bill Tierney), but Dave and Kevin Huntley are the only father and son in the history of the sport to each win more than one NCAA Division I title as players.Player Notes of Interest in PDF Version

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