BALTIMORE – No. 10 Syracuse (4-2) continued its recent mastery of Johns Hopkins (5-1), beating the second-ranked Blue Jays, 12-10, Saturday, March 15 on a beautiful day at Homewood Field. The Orange led 7-3 at half and 10-6 after three quarters before holding on to defeat Hopkins for the seventh time in the last eight meetings.
Redshirt sophomore Dylan Donahue and senior Billy Ward had four points each to pace the Orange. Donahue tallied three goals and one assist. Ward finished with two goals and two assists. Senior midfielder Scott Loy added a pair of goals.
Syracuse, which entered Saturday second nationally in shooting percentage, continued to display remarkable offensive efficiency against the Blue Jays. The Orange shot 40 percent for the game, scoring on 12 of its 30 shots to raise its season shooting percentage to 38.9 percent (82-211). In addition, the Orange only turned the ball over seven times in the contest.
Those numbers helped Syracuse negate a 21-4 Hopkins advantage at the faceoff X. The Blue Jays’ Drew Kennedy won a career-best 21-of-25 draws (.840). He also picked up a personal-best 15 ground balls.
Ryan Brown was responsible for nearly all of the Blue Jays’ offense. He scored eight goals on 11 shots, one shy of the Hopkins single-game record.
“It was another great Syracuse-Hopkins game,” SU head coach John Desko said. “I thought we got off to a good start in the first half. The offense was pretty patient and worked for some good goals.
“In the second half, just as we thought, the Blue Jays came out strong and scored a couple of quick goals to turn it into a tight lacrosse game again. Fortunately, we got a couple goals down the stretch to hold on and keep the lead.”
Brown opened the game’s scoring less than two minutes in, but SU got consecutive goals from junior Kevin Rice, Loy and Donahue to claim a 3-1 lead after the first quarter.
Hopkins closed to within 4-3 on a goal by defenseman Nick Fields after a faceoff win with 10:35 left in the first half. However once again, the Orange defense blanked the Blue Jays for the remainder of the period and the SU offense tallied three straight goals to extend the advantage to 7-3 at the break.
In the second half, Brown continued his personal offensive crusade. He found the cage three times to pull Hopkins within one again, 7-6.
Ward’s second goal ended Brown’s scoring spree and ignited another three-goal Syracuse scoring spurt. Defenseman Matt Harris‘ full-field sprint and score capped the run and pushed the Orange margin to 10-6 heading into the final quarter.
Once again the Blue Jays turned to Brown and the sophomore attackman responded with three goals in the first 2:01 of the fourth frame to bring the hosts within one, 10-9.
Orange freshman Nick Weston‘s second career goal ended Brown’s scoring run and gave SU an 11-9 advantage. Holden Cattoni scored less than a minute later for the Blue Jays, but that proved to be their final goal. The SU defense blanked Hopkins for the last 9:38 of game, and Donahue sealed the victory by scoring unassisted with 2:13 remaining.
Orange senior goalie Dominic Lamolinara played the entire game and stopped 11 shots for his 13th career double-digit save game. Hopkins goaltender Eric Schneider made seven saves in the contest.
Syracuse steps back into ACC play next weekend when the Orange visits Duke Sunday, March 23 for a rematch of the 2013 national championship game. Faceoff is 12:30 p.m. at Koskinen Stadium. The game will be televised live on ESPNU.
Game Notes: Ward’s four points were a career high … Harris made his first start of the year on close defense and his goal was his third of the season and the ninth of his career … Lamolinara was credited with an assist on Harris’ goal. It was Lamolinara’s first career point … The Orange held Blue Jay attackman Brandon Benn without a goal to end Benn’s 21-game, goal-scoring streak which had been the third-longest streak in the country … Brown’s eight goals tied Virginia’s Doug Knight (1996) and Georgetown’s Greg McCavera (1999) for the most ever by opposing player against the Orange.
