June 17, 2009

2009 Johns Hopkins Men's Lacrosse Season-Ending Notebook in PDF Format

The Team: Johns Hopkins posted a 10-5 record and advanced to the NCAA Quarterfinal before the Blue Jays were eliminated by top-seeded Virginia (19-8).

38 Special: Johns Hopkins made its 38th straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament this season - the longest active streak of qualifying for the tournament in the nation. The 38 straight appearances are just one of a number of impressive streaks the Blue Jays have relative to the NCAA Tournament. For a complete list of these streaks please see the box on page 2.

19 In a Row - Or 16 More Than Anyone Else: Johns Hopkins made its 19th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Quarterfinals. The next longest active streak is three (Duke).

These are the Facts: Johns Hopkins concluded the season with an all-time record of 892-283-15 (.756). The Blue Jays own nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 44 national championships.

That's 609 Games Over .500: The Blue Jays' all-time record is now 892-283-15 (.756) ... that's 609 games over .500. To put this in perspective: JHU has played an average of just over 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 nine games over .500.

Five Earn All-America Honors: Johns Hopkins placed five players on the 2009 USILA All-America Team. It is the eighth straight year that Johns Hopkins has placed five or more players on the All-America Team.
Leading the way for the Blue Jays was senior defenseman Michael Evans, who grabbed first team honors after earning honorable mention status as a sophomore and third team honors as a junior. Midfielders Michael Kimmel (2nd Team) and Brian Christopher (3rd) and attackmen Steven Boyle (HM) and Kyle Wharton (HM) rounded out JHU's All-America selections.

May Day: JHU is 29-7 (.806) in the month of May under Pietramala, including a perfect 15-0 at Homewood Field. Overall the Blue Jays have won 23 consecutive games at Homewood Field in the month of May. JHU's last loss at home in May came on May 2, 1992, when Towson dropped the Blue Jays, 14-13, in overtime.

NCAA Notes of Interest: In addition to the breakdown to the right, below are some notes of interest concerning JHU's history in the NCAA Tournament.
• The Blue Jays are 19-7 under Dave Pietramala in the NCAA Tournament. Pietramala's 19 wins in the NCAA Tournament since 2002 are tied for the most by any coach (John Desko - Syracuse).
• JHU is 28-9 all-time in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament.

A Brutal Stretch: Starting with the game against Princeton on February 28 and running through the game against Navy (4/18), Johns Hopkins played nine straight games against teams ranked in the top 20.
How difficult was the Blue Jays' schedule in 2009? Consider ...
• The cumulative record of JHU's 15 opponents was 162-74 (.679).
• Johns Hopkins played nine of the 15 other teams that qualified for the NCAA Tournament this season. As it turned out, JHU played its first seven games and nine of its first 10 against teams that qualified for the NCAAs.
• 12 of JHU's 15 games this season were against teams ranked in the top 20.
• Ony two of JHU's 15 opponents this season (Towson, Mount St. Mary's) posted a record below .500 and 10 of JHU's opponents posted 10 wins or more on the season.

Petro Passes Ciccarone: JHU head coach Dave Pietramala earned his 106th career victory at Johns Hopkins with the 12-11 victory over Brown in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. With the win he passed legendary coach Henry Ciccarone (1975-83) for second place on JHU's career coaching victories list. Pietramala now sports a 106-30 (.779) record at Hopkins and trails only Bob Scott (1955-74) on the list. Scott posted a 158-55-1 record during his tenure.

Petro Earns Career Win Number 125: In addition to earning his 100th win as the head coach at Johns Hopkins, Dave Pietramala grabbed the 125th overall coaching victory of his career with the 15-7 win over Navy. He now sports an overall record of 129-47 (.733). This includes a 23-17 record in three seasons as the head coach at Cornell (1998-2000).

Poll Position: Johns Hopkins concluded the regular season ranked eighth in the USILA Coaches Poll and finished the year ranked seventh in the Inside Lacrosse/Nike Media Poll. There is a media poll at the end of the NCAA Tournament, but the USILA Poll is not conducted after the NCAA Tournament begins.

More Poll Position: Records indicate that the USILA began sponsoring a weekly coaches poll during the 1973 season. Since then there have been 357 weekly polls. Amazingly, Johns Hopkins has been ranked in the top 20 in all 357 of those polls and has been in the top 10 in 345 of the 357. Below is a breakdown of the Blue Jays in the USILA Coaches Poll since its inception on March 19, 1973:

Total Weeks: 357
Total Weeks at #1: 102
Weeks in top 5: 276
Weeks in top 10: 345
Weeks in top 20: 357

Streaking: Johns Hopkins is 82-20 in its last 102 regular season games dating back to the end of the 2001 season and 98-26 overall since the start of the 2002 season.

Attack Emerges: With the loss of standouts Paul Rabil and Stephen Peyser at midfield, it was no secret that the Blue Jay offense was likely to become more attack oriented. Starters Steven Boyle, Kyle Wharton and Chris Boland combined for 10 or more points six times in 11 starts together and nine or more points seven times in those 11 games.
Wharton led the team in goals (34) and ranked second in points (45), while Boland finished first in points (46), second in assists (18) and third in goals (28).
Boyle, who sat out the game at Mount St. Mary's and played sparingly against Loyola, finished fifth in points (38) with 21 goals and 17 assists. After Boland entered the starting lineup against UMBC, the starting trio combined for 61 goals and 35 assists (8.7 ppg.) in the 10 games they started together.
The 128 points the starting attack unit generated this season in 15 games was 31 points more than JHU's three starters on attack - Boyle, Kevin Huntley and Michael Doneger - combined for last season in 17 games.
The most exciting part of the Boland, Boyle, Wharton evolution is that all three are due to return in 2010.

Young Guns: A year ago the Blue Jay offense was a senior-laden group that was led by Paul Rabil, Kevin Huntley, Stephen Peyser and Michael Doneger, who combined for 108 goals and 34 assists. Fast forward to this season and the experience has been replaced by youth. In 2009, 120 of the Blue Jays' 173 goals (69.4%) were scored by players who will return next season, while 90 of the team's 108 assists (83.3%) were accumulated by players with at least one year of eligibility remaining.
Taking a look at the top of the scoring charts magnifies the Blue Jays' youth even more: • Four of JHU's top five scorers (Chris Boland-46, Kyle Wharton-45, Michael Kimmel-45, Steven Boyle-38) combined for 174 points this season. All four are due to return in 2010.
• JHU boasted five players with 18 or more goals (Kyle Wharton-34, Brian Christopher-30, Chris Boland-28, Steven Boyle-21, Michael Kimmel-20). Four of the five are due to return in 2010.
• Five players on the team had 11 or more assists (Michael Kimmel-25, Chris Boland-18, Steven Boyle-17, Brian Christopher-11, Kyle Wharton-11). Four of the five are due to returnin 2010.

Defensive Notes of Interest:
• JHU held the opposition scoreless for a stretch of 11 minutes or longer 25 times this season.
• Since the start of the 2007 season the Blue Jays have held the opposition scoreless for a streak of 14 minutes or longer 47 times. JHU turned this trick 10 times this season.
• The Blue Jays have held 22 of their last 36 opponents scoreless for a stretch of at least 18 minutes.
• Hopkins has held the opposition scoreless for 25 minutes or longer 14 times since the start of the 2007 season.
• Despite allowing 10 goals againt Towson, the Blue Jays held the Tigers scoreless for stretches of 12:30, 11:37 and 11:20. The Tigers were also a combined 1-of-15 shooting in the fourth quarter and overtime.
• Johns Hopkins held Maryland scoreless for a stretch of 20:02 from late in the third quarter until the final minute of the fourth.
• Johns Hopkins held Hofstra scoreless for stretches of 16:49, 11:56 and 11:21 in the 12-7 victory against the Pride. The Pride scored consecutive goals just once (late in the first quarter) against the Blue Jays.
• Johns Hopkins held Siena to just three goals in the season-opener. That's the fewest JHU has allowed in a season-opener since 1982.
• The Blue Jays held Siena scoreless for the final 45:50 and limited the Saints to just six shots in the second half, including none in the third quarter.

Offensive Notes of Interest:
While the focus of any Dave Pietramala-coached team will always be defense, the Blue Jay offense has also been effective. Consider:
• Johns Hopkins finished the season ranked eighth in the nation in scoring offense (11.53), seventh in the nation in points per game (18.73) and fourth in assists per game (7.2). This is the highest Johns Hopkins has finished in scoring offense since 2005, when the Blue Jays placed sixth.
The Blue Jays' offensive numbers are even more impressive when you look at the national scoring defense leaders. JHU played three of the top five and six of the top nine schools in the nation in scoring defense. In all, JHU played 12 of its 15 games against teams ranked in the top 23 in the nation in scoring defense.
• Despite the heavy losses mentioned earlier on offense (Paul Rabil, Kevin Huntley, Stephen Peyser, Michael Doneger), the Blue Jays actually averaged about one goal per game more than they did when they advanced to the national championship game last year (10.53) and won the national championship in 2007 (10.47). In fact, the 11.53 goals per game the Blue Jays averaged this season are the most for JHU since 2005 (11.63).
• JHU has scored in double figures 30 times in its last 38 games and is averaging 11.16 goals per game during that time (424 goals in 38 games).
• The 15 goals the Blue Jays scored against top-ranked Virginia during the regular season are the most by Johns Hopkins against a team ranked in the top five since March 20, 2004, when JHU knocked off then third-ranked Syracuse, 17-5.
• The Blue Jays scored 173 goals on 529 shots this season for a shooting percentage of .329 - the highest during Dave Pietramala's tenure as the head coach at Homewood. As a team the Blue Jays scored on 31.2% of their shots last season (179-of-573). JHU connected on 28.8% of its shots en route to winning the national championship in 2007. Prior to this season the Blue Jays' highest shooting percentage in the Pietramala era came in 2003, when they connected on 31.7% (224-of-706) of their shots. The last time JHU connected on better than 33% of its shots was in 1993 (211-of-607 /.348).

Kimmel Joins Elite Club: Junior Michael Kimmel enjoyed the finest season of his career and one of the finest seasons by a midfielder in the nation this season. Kimmel finished third on the team in points (45), led the team with a career-high 25 assists and finished fifth on the team in goals (20). He also ranked fourth on the team in ground balls (32), totaled two or more points in 13 of 15 games this season and had 23 points in his last seven games (9g, 14a).
With his late surge, Kimmel joined an exclusive club at Johns Hopkins, one which counts just three members. With his 45 points this season, Kimmel is just the third midfielder in school history to total 30 or more points as a freshman, sophomore and junior. He joins four-time First Team All-American Del Dressel and three-time First Team All-American Paul Rabil as the only middies in JHU history to turn this trick. Kimmel closed the season with 106 career points (56g, 50a).
In additon to the above, Kimmel is just the fourth Johns Hopkins player in the last 15 years to total 20 or more goals and 25 or more assists in one season (Paul Rabil-2007, Kevin Boland-2003, Dan Denihan-1999 & 2000).

Evans Grabs Schmeisser Award: Senior Michael Evans closed out a billiant career on defense this season with a selection as a First Team USILA All-American. He also became the first Johns Hopkins player to earn the Schmeisser Award as the nation's top defenseman since Brian Kuczma in 1997.
Evans, who routinely drew the assignment of marking the opposition's top attackman, started all 48 games over the last four years and ended his career tied for second on JHU's career games played list (63). He totaled 16 ground balls and nine caused turnovers this season and is the first Johns Hopkins defenseman to earn First Team All-America honors since Tom Garvey in 2005.

One-Goal Turnarounds: With the 12-11 overtime win against Brown in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Johns Hopkins is now 35-11 in one-goal games since Dave Pietramala took over in 2001. The Blue Jays have won 22 of their last 29 and 26 of their last 34 one-goal games. In the nine seasons prior to Pietramala arriving (1992-2000) the Blue Jays were 12-10 in one-goal games.

More One-Goal Notes: The Blue Jays have come from behind to win 18 times during their last 22 one-goal wins. In 12 of those 18 come-from-behind one-goal wins the Blue Jays came back from a deficit of two goals or more. The latest of these come-from-behind one-goal wins came against Loyola, when the Blue Jays trailed 7-5 in the third quarter. JHU also erased a pair of four-goal deficits in the 11-10 (2OT) win at Towson. The four-goal deficit is the largest JHU has overcome to win a game since March 18, 2005, when the Blue Jays erased a 7-1 deficit and defeated Syracuse, 12-11, in overtime.

Extra, Extra: The 11-10 double overtime victory at Towson snapped a four-game losing streak in overtime for the Blue Jays, who made it two double-overtime victories in 10 days when they slipped past Loyola by the same score in the regular season finale. JHU added a 12-11 OT decision against Brown in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
JHU is 16-6 all-time in overtime under head coach Dave Pietramala's guidance and won nine straight overtime games from 2004 through 2007 before dropping three straight games in OT last season and one earlier this year at North Carolina.

Players on the 2009 team who have scored game-winning goals in overtime during their career:

• Senior Brian Christopher netted the second game-winning overtime goal of his career at Towson (4-22-09) as he scored with just 1.2 seconds remaining in the second overtime to lift the Blue Jays to the improbable victory. He added his school-record third game-winning goal in overtime when he scored 25 seconds into the second overtime to lift the Blue Jays past Loyola and made it a stunning three OT game-winners in a four-game span when he beat Brown just 36 seconds into extra time in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Previously he also scored 1:22 into OT against Loyola on May 6, 2006.

• Junior 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 in 2007.

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