April 4, 2007

Johns Hopkins-Duke Lacrosse Notes in PDF Format
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Setting the Scene: Johns Hopkins and Duke meet in the belated rematch of the 2005 NCAA Championship game. The Blue Jays enter the game with a record of 4-3 after dropping back-to-back games against Virginia and North Carolina. Duke is 8-2 and has won three straight.

Looking Back: Johns Hopkins fell to North Carolina, 13-10, last Saturday in Chapel Hill. Duke picked up a pair of wins last weekend at home as the Devils knocked off Delaware (12-6) and Bellarmine (18-9).

Poll Position: Johns Hopkins is ranked ninth in this week's USILA Coaches Poll and ninth in this week's Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll. Duke enters this week's game ranked fourth by the coaches and fourth by the media. The Johns Hopkins Sports Information Office uses the USILA Poll to reflect JHU's official ranking at the time of a game.

These are the Facts: Johns Hopkins enters the game against Duke with an all-time record of 862-271-15 (.757). The Blue Jays own eight NCAA Championships, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 43 national championships.

Pietramala Stands Alone: Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala is the only person in lacrosse history who has won an NCAA Division I Championship as a player (1987) and a head coach (2005). He is also the only person who has been named the national player of the year and the national coach of the year.

Petro Closes on Milestones: The 17-9 win at Syracuse on March 17 not only extended JHU's winning streak to four games at the time, but it also moved Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala to within one victory of a pair of milestones.
Pietramala now boasts a 76-18 record in six-plus seasons at Johns Hopkins and an overall record of 99-35 (including three seasons at Cornell, where he posted a 23-17 record). His next victory will move him into a tie with Tony Seaman for third place on JHU's career coaching victories list while it will also mark the 100th victory of his career.

Streaking: Johns Hopkins is 60-10 in its last 70 regular season games dating back to the end of the 2001 season and 68-14 overall since the start of the 2002 season.

One-Goal Turnarounds: The 9-8 victory against Hofstra improved Hopkins' recent run of success in one-goal games as JHU is 26-6 in one-goal games under head coach Dave Pietramala. The Blue Jays have won 13 of their last 15 and 17 of their last 20 one-goal games. In its previous 32 one-goal games (covering a span from an 11-10 win over Virginia in 1988 through the 2000 season), Hopkins was 18-14.

More One-Goal Notes: The Blue Jays have come from behind to win 11 times during their last 13 one-goal wins. In eight of those 11 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 wins was the 7-6 double-overtime victory against Princeton as the Blue Jays erased deficits of 2-0, 3-1, 4-3 and 5-4 before prevailing.

Overtime Notes: The 7-6 double-overtime victory against Princeton improved the Blue Jays' record to 11-2 in overtime under head coach Dave Pietramala. The Blue Jays have currently won seven straight overtime games. Players on the 2007 team who have scored game-winning goals in overtime:

• Junior Kevin Huntley punched home the game-winner in the second OT against Duke in 2005.
• Sophomore Brian Christopher scored 1:22 into OT against Loyola on May 6, 2006.
• Junior Paul Rabil fired home the game-winner 56 seconds into the 2nd OT against Princeton on March 3.

It's Been a While: Last week's 13-10 loss at North Carolina brought an amazing streak to an end for the Blue Jays. The loss to the Tar Heels was the second straight for Hopkins, marking the first two-game losing streak for the Blue Jays in the same season since 2000. Hopkins dropped back-to-back decisions to Syracuse and Virginia in late March that season before reeling off eight straight wins.

April Reign: Flipping the calendar from March to April usually means good things for the Blue Jays, who are 28-2 in the month of April under head coach Dave Pietramala and 52-2 in April since the start of the 1997 season.

What's Back: The Blue Jays were one of the youngest teams in the nation last season, but still fought their way to within one goal of reaching the final four. The Blue Jays return players who accounted for 125 of their 138 (90.6%) goals last season and 55 of 69 (79.7%) assists they accumulated a year ago.

Class Act: Despite returning a majority of its scoring from last season, the Blue Jays are still getting a significant amount of production from players who have at least one year of eligibility remaining after this season. Below is a breakdown of Hopkins' scoring by class through seven games:

Class (Goals-Assists/Points Seniors (15-6/21)
Juniors (23-14/37)
Sophomores (10-4/14)
Freshmen (22-13/)35

Class Notes of Interest: • Each class totaled exactly four points in the game at North Carolina.
• Freshmen Steven Boyle and Michael Kimmel have combined for at least four points in six of seven games thus far. The pair has combined for at least two points in all seven games.
• Only two seniors have accumulated points through seven games as Jake Byrne (13g, 5a) and Drew Dabrowski (2g, 1a) account for all 21 points the senior class has combined for.
• The junior class accounts for more goals, assists and points than any class on the team with Paul Rabil (10g, 6a), Kevin Huntley (5g, 3a) and Stephen Peyser (4g, 4a) leading the way.
• 55 of JHU's 70 goals (78.6%) and 31 of 37 assists (83.8%) have been accumulated by players who will return in 2008.

Extra-Man Offense Bounces Back: After going 0-for-2 with the extra man against Albany, Johns Hopkins bounced back and converted 2-of-4 in the win over Princeton and 2-of-6 in the win over UMBC before converting on its only chance against Hofstra and 1-of-3 vs. Syracuse. The Blue Jays got extra-man goals from juniors Kevin Huntley and Michael Doneger (both goals were assisted by freshman Michael Kimmel) in the win over Princeton, while Huntley and Kimmel scored with the extra man against the Retrievers (both goals assisted by Jake Byrne). Doneger punched home the lone extra-man goal against Hofstra off an assist from Kimmel. Paul Rabil scored JHU's first unassisted EMO goal of the year against Syracuse. Johns Hopkins has finished in the top 10 in the nation in extra-man offense four times in the last five years (2002-T4th, 2003-1st, 2004-5th, 2006-9th) and currently ranks 15th in the nation in EMO (.333).

It's Been a While-II: The 13 goals the Blue Jays allowed last week at North Carolina are the most they have surrendered this season and the most in a regular season game since allowing 15 at Syracuse early in the 2003 season. The Blue Jays have not allowed more than 10 goals in back-to-back games since the last two games of the 2002 season.

35 in a Row: Last year's NCAA Tournament bid was the 35th straight for Johns Hopkins, which missed the inaugural NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Tournament in 1971, but has qualified for every one since. This is the longest streak of qualifying for the NCAA Tournament in any Division I Team sport.

10 in a Row: The Blue Jays drew the number four seed in last year's NCAA Tournament. This marked the 10th consecutive year Johns Hopkins has been seeded in the top four in the tournament. By comparison, only two other schools (Syracuse & Georgetown) have even qualified for the tournament in each of the last 10 years.

One of Two: Junior midfielder Paul Rabil is one of just two Division I men's lacrosse players returning this season who earned First Team STX/USILA All-America honors (he joins Princeton goalie Alex Hewitt). Rabil became the first Johns Hopkins sophomore since A.J. Haugen in 1998 to earn First Team All-America when he took top honors a year ago. He led the Blue Jays in scoring last season with 25 goals and 13 assists for 38 points.

Player Notes of Interest in PDF Version

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