Johns Hopkins-Towson Men's Lacrosse Notes

Blue Jays, Tigers Meet for 35th Time on Saturday

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Senior attackman Jake Byrne enters this week's game at Towson needing one point to reach 100 in his career.

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April 25, 2007

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Setting the Scene: Johns Hopkins and Towson meet for the 35th time in a series that dates to a 15-8 Johns Hopkins win in 1976.

Looking Back: Johns Hopkins improved to 6-4 with its second straight win - a 10-9 verdict last Saturday against Navy. Towson secured the top seed in the upcoming CAA Tournament with a 9-8 win at Drexel in a battle between the league's last two unbeaten teams.

Poll Position: Johns Hopkins is ranked fifth in this week's USILA Coaches Poll and fifth in this week's Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll. Towson enters this week's game ranked 15th by the coaches and 15th 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 Towson with an all-time record of 864-272-15 (.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 Slides Into Third Place on Career Coaching Victories List at JHU: One week after Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala earned career coaching victory number 100 with an 8-7 win at Maryland, he moved into third place on the all-time coaching victories list at Johns Hopkins with his 78th win at Homewood (the 10-9 win against Navy). Pietramala entered last week's game against the Midshipmen tied for third with Tony Seaman, who won 77 games at Johns Hopkins from 1991-98.
Pietramala now sports an overall record of 101-36, including a 78-19 mark since arriving at Johns Hopkins prior to the 2001 season. Only Hall of Famers Bob Scott and Henry Ciccarone have won more games as the head coach at Johns Hopkins than Pietramala.

Streaking: Johns Hopkins is 62-11 in its last 73 regular season games dating back to the end of the 2001 season and 70-15 overall since the start of the 2002 season.

One-Goal Turnarounds: Last week's 10-9 win against Navy improved Hopkins' recent run of success in one-goal games as JHU is 28-6 in one-goal games under head coach Dave Pietramala. The Blue Jays have won 15 of their last 17 and 19 of their last 22 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 13 times during their last 15 one-goal wins. In nine of those 13 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 last week against Navy, when the Blue Jays erased deficits ot 3-1 and 5-4 to win 10-9.

Blue Jays Continue Overtime Roll: Johns Hopkins continued an amazing run of success in overtime games with the 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 against the Terps. 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 at Maryland (4-14-07).

April Reign: Flipping the calendar from March to April usually means good things for the Blue Jays, who are 30-3 in the month of April under head coach Dave Pietramala and 54-3 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 the win over Maryland it was the juniors (4g, 3a) and sophomores (3g) leading the way, while the juniors (4g) and freshmen (3g, 1a) led the way in the win over against Navy.

Class Notes of Interest:
• Freshmen Steven Boyle and Michael Kimmel have combined for at least three points in eight of 10 games thus far.
• Only three seniors have accumulated points through 10 games as Jake Byrne (16g, 5a), Drew Dabrowski (2g, 1a) and Jamison Koesterer (1g, 1a) account for all 26 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 (15g, 10a), Kevin Huntley (10g, 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 the win over Maryland and have converted 9-of-29 (.310) EMO chances this season. The Blue Jays currently rank 23rd 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 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.

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.

Rabil Wins Race to 100: Senior attackman Jake Byrne and junior midfielder Paul Rabil entered the 2007 season in a race to see which of the two would get to the 100 career point mark first.
Both enterd last week's game against Navy tied with 97 career points, but Rabil scored three goals to reach the century mark first as he now counts 63 goals and 37 assists to his credit. He has been on a particularly hot streak of late as he has four consecutive games with three points and 20 points over his last six games (11g, 9a). He currently leads the team in scoring with 15 goals and 10 assists.
Byrne scored two goals in the win over Navy to run his season totals to 16 goals and five assists for 21 points. He now boasts career totals of 64 goals and 35 assists for 99 points.

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.