April 2, 2008

Johns Hopkins-Duke Men's Lacrosse Notes

Johns Hopkins-Duke Miscellaneous Lacrosse Notes

Game-by-Game Recaps

Setting the Scene: Johns Hopkins heads to Durham, North Carolina for a nationally-televised evening matchup with second-ranked Duke. Game time at Duke's Koskinen Stadium is set for 6 pm.

Looking Back: Johns Hopkins dropped its fourth straight with a 13-8 loss to North Carolina. Duke improved to 10-1 with a 16-9 win over Dartmouth last Saturday in a game played in Uniondale, New York.

These are the Facts: Johns Hopkins enters the game against Duke with an all-time record of 874-276-15 (.757). The Blue Jays own nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 44 championships.

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.

Yes, That's 598 Games Over .500: Including last week's loss to North Carolina the Blue Jays' all-time record is now 874-276-15 ... that's 598 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 would fall just two games below .500.

Poll Position: Johns Hopkins is ranked 11th in this week's USILA Coaches Poll and 10th in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll. Duke is ranked second in both the USILA Coaches Poll and the Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll this week. To clarify, the Johns Hopkins Sports Information Office uses the USILA Coaches Poll to reflect JHU's official ranking at the time of a game.

A Tough Stretch: This week's game against Duke is the fourth in a six-game stretch against teams that currently rank in the top nine in the USILA Coaches Poll. JHU played top-ranked Syracuse on March 15, fourth-ranked Virginia on March 22 and sixth-ranked North Carolina last week. After this week's game against second-ranked Duke, the Blue Jays will return home to take on third-ranked Maryland before closing the brutal stretch at ninth-ranked Navy. The combined record of those six teams is currently 48-9 (.842).

April Reign: Flipping the calendar to April has usually been a good sign for the Blue Jays, who won four-of-five games in April last season. Taking it back farther, the Blue Jays are 32-3 (.914) under head coach Dave Pietramala in games played in April. The Blue Jays have not lost a road game in the month of April since a 10-9 setback at Maryland on April 14, 2001. JHU's road winning streak in the month of April currently stands at 15 games.

Rare Losing Streak: Last Saturday's loss against North Carolina was JHU's fourth straight. The three-game losing streak is just the second losing streak for the Blue Jays under head coach Dave Pietramala. JHU dropped three straight last season before rallying to win its last nine games en route to winning the NCAA Championship for the second time in three years. These are the only two losing streaks under Pietramala. JHU last lost four straight in 1990.

No Cause for Panic: While many may be tempted to start pushing the panic button, head coach Dave Pietramala and his Blue Jays have been in this position before. In Pietramala's first season (2001), the Blue Jays stood at 2-2 after a 4OT loss to Virginia, but rallied to win six of their next seven. In 2006 JHU stood at 3-3 after a loss at Virginia, but again rallied to win six of its next seven. Finally, the 2007 Blue Jays dropped three straight at one point to fall to 4-4, but won nine straight to end the season and capture the NCAA Championship.

Number One Perspective: Johns Hopkins has played 53 games as the top-ranked team in the nation since the beginning of the 2002 season. That's more than all of other Division I men's lacrosse teams in the nation have combined to play as the top-ranked team in the nation over the same period of time.

One-Goal Turnarounds: The three straight losses to Hofstra (8-7), Syracuse (14-13) and Virginia (13-12) are rare one-goal losses for the Blue Jays under head coach Dave Pietramala. Johns Hopkins is now 30-9 in one-goal games since Pietramala took over in 2001. Despite the losses, the Blue Jays have won 17 of their last 22 and 21 of their last 27 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 in the 2007 NCAA Tournament, when the Blue Jays erased a 4-1 second-quarter deficit.

In Case We Go Extra: The loss at Hofstra snapped a nine-game winning streak for the Blue Jays in overtime games. The Blue Jays had won nine straight overtime games dating back to a 10-9 win at Navy in 2004 before the loss to the Pride. Including the OT loss to Virginia, JHU is 13-5 all-time in overtime under Pietramala's guidance, including an impressive 6-3 in overtime games played on the road.

Players on the 2008 team who have 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.

More Overtime: The three consecutive overtime games for the Blue Jays against Hofstra, Syracuse and Virginia mark the first time Johns Hopkins has ever played three straight overtime games. Twice previously the Blue Jays had played two consecutive overtime games (1982 and 1988).

Comeback Kids: The Blue Jays trailed - albeit briefly- vs. Albany and as late as early in the third quarter against 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 68-15 in its last 83 regular season games dating back to the end of the 2001 season and is 80-19 overall since the start of the 2002 season.

12-Game Winning Streak Snapped: As if losing four straight is not stunning enough, the losses have come on the heels of a 12-game winning streak. Johns Hopkins ended the 2007 season with a nine-game winning streak and pushed the streak to 12 in a row with three straight wins to open the season before the 8-7 loss at Hofstra. The 12-game winning streak is the fifth winning streak of eight games or longer under head coach Dave Pietramala and 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, kept Princeton off the board for the first 23:04 and held Hofstra without a goal for 37:56. The streak of over 37 scoreless minutes for the Pride marks the eighth 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 25 times since the start of the 2007 season, including eight times in seven games this season.

• The Blue Jays have held 10 of their last 13 opponents - including five of seven 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.

A Final Defensive: Hofstra scored six goals in the first 13:02 against the Blue Jays. The Pride didn't score again until just 9:02 remained in the fourth quarter.

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:
• As a team the Blue Jays have scored on 31.0% of their shots through seven games (74-of-239). JHU connected on 28.8% of its shots en route to winning the national championship a year ago. 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.
• Dating back to the end of last season, JHU has scored in double figures 10 times in its last 13 games and is averaging 11.2 goals per game during that time.

More Offense: Johns Hopkins has scored more than one goal in 23 of 31 quarters thus far (includes overtime periods). Take away the three overtime periods (when it would be impossible to score more than once) and JHU has scored more than one goal in 23 of 28 full-length quarters.

Playing the Possession Game: JHU has won the ground ball war in six of its seven games this season and has a 255-219 ground ball advantage on the year (+5.1 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. Hofstra is the only team that has won the ground ball battle against the Blue Jays this season (31-29).

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 Included in PDF Version