April 18, 2007

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Setting the Scene: Johns Hopkins and Navy meet for the 80th time in a series that dates to a 6-1 Johns Hopkins win in 1908. The teams have met every year since 1950.

Looking Back: Johns Hopkins snapped a three-game losing streak with an 8-7 overtime victory at Maryland last Saturday. The Blue Jays had last lost three straight in 1990. Navy snapped a two-game losing streak with a 12-9 win over Army before better than 11,000 at Navy Marine Corps Stadium last Saturday.

Poll Position: Johns Hopkins is ranked seventh in this week's USILA Coaches Poll and seventh in this week's Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll. Navy enters this week's game ranked ninth by the coaches and tied for eighth (with Maryland) 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 Navy with an all-time record of 863-272-15 (.757). The Blue Jays own eight NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 43 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 Grabs 100th Win: Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala earned career coaching victory number 100 with last week's 8-7 win at Maryland. He now sports an overall record of 100-36, including a 77-19 mark since arriving at Johns Hopkins prior to the 2001 season.
In addition to reaching the 100-win mark with last week's vicrory at Maryland, Pietramala also moved into a tie for third place on the career coaching victories list at Hopkins. His 77 victories tie Tony Seaman for third on the all-time list. Only Hall of Famers Bob Scott and Henry Ciccarone have won more games at Hopkins than Pietramala.

Streaking: Johns Hopkins is 61-11 in its last 72 regular season games dating back to the end of the 2001 season and 69-15 overall since the start of the 2002 season.

One-Goal Turnarounds: Last week's 8-7 win at Maryland improved Hopkins' recent run of success in one-goal games as JHU is 27-6 in one-goal games under head coach Dave Pietramala. The Blue Jays have won 14 of their last 16 and 18 of their last 21 one-goal games. In its previous 33 one-goal games (covering a span from an 11-10 win over Cornell in the 1987 NCAA Championship game through the 2000 season), Hopkins was 19-14.

More One-Goal Notes: The Blue Jays have come from behind to win 12 times during their last 14 one-goal wins. In eight of those 12 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 last week's 8-7 overtime victory against Maryland as the Blue Jays erased deficits of 1-0 and 5-4 before prevailing.

Blue Jays Continue Overtime Roll: Johns Hopkins continued an amazing run of success in overtime games with last week's win at Maryland. The Blue Jays improved to 12-2 in overtime under head coach Dave Pietramala and have currently won eight straight games that have gone to extra time. More impressively, the Blue Jays are 6-1 in road games that have gone to overtime under Pietramala.

In addition, junior Paul Rabil became the first player in school history to score two game-winning goals in overtime in one season as he had previously netted the deciding goal in the second overtime of a 7-6 win against Princeton earlier this season before nailing the winner last week. Records indicate that Johns Hopkins played its first overtime game in the 1973 NCAA Championship game ... a 10-9 double overtime loss to Maryland. Hopkins boasts an overall record of 21-13 in 34 all-time 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 and tallied the game-winner 43 seconds into overtime in last week's win at Maryland.

April Reign: Flipping the calendar from March to April usually means good things for the Blue Jays, who are 29-3 in the month of April under head coach Dave Pietramala and 53-3 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: The Blue Jays continue to get balanced offensive production from members of each class. In last week's win over Maryland it was the juniors (4g, 3a) and sophomores (3g) leading the way.

Class Notes of Interest:

• Freshmen Steven Boyle and Michael Kimmel have combined for at least three points in seven of nine games thus far.
• Only three seniors have accumulated points through nine games as Jake Byrne (14g, 5a), Drew Dabrowski (2g, 1a) and Jamison Koesterer (1g, 1a) account for all 24 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 (12g, 10a), Kevin Huntley (9g, 3a) and Stephen Peyser (6g, 7a) leading the way.

Balanced Extra-Man Scoring: The Blue Jays were successful on 2-of-4 extra-man opportunities in last week's win over Maryland and have converted 9-of-28 (.321) EMO chances this season. The Blue Jays currently rank 21st in the nation in extra-man offense.
All six players on JHU's extra-man unit have registered at least one point with Michael Kimmel's five points (2g, 3a) leading the way. Kevin Huntley scored both of JHU's extra-man goals last week against Maryland and now counts a team-high four EMO goals to his credit.
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).

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.

Johns Hopkins-Navy Men's Lacrosse Notes in PDF Format
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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.

Byrne, Rabil in Race to 100: Senior attackman Jake Byrne and junior midfielder Paul Rabil are now tied in their race to see which of the two will reach the 100 career point mark first. Both enter this week's game against Navy with 97 career points to their credit.
Byrne scored one goal last week at Maryland to run his season totals to 14 goals and five assists for 19 points. He now has career totals of 62 goals and 35 assists and is tied with junior attackman Kevin Huntley as JHU's career active goal-scoring leader.
Rabil made it three straight one-goal, two-assist showings with his effort against Maryland and pushed his season totals to 12 goals and 10 assists for 22 points. He now counts 60 goals and 37 assists to his credit and is quietly putting together a nice run. He has eight goals and nine assists to his credit over the last five games.

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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