Blue Jays, Tigers Meet for 44th Time on Saturday March 12, 2016
The Game: 11th-ranked Johns Hopkins (2-2) welcomes undefeated and sixth-ranked Towson (5-0) to Homewood Field for the third of four consecutive home games for the Blue Jays. Faceoff is set for 2:01 pm on Saturday, March 12.
A Look Back: Johns Hopkins and Towson both enter this week’s game fresh off lopsided victories. The Blue Jays evened their record at 2-2 with a 17-7 victory at home against Princeton last Saturday, while the Tigers moved to 5-0 for the first time since 1992 with a not-as-close-as-it-looks 14-6 victory against UMBC.
Series History: Johns Hopkins and Towson are meeting for the 44th time in a series that dates to a 15-8 Blue Jay victory on March 27, 1976. Johns Hopkins leads the all-time series 39-4, although Towson won the last meeting, 7-5, early in the 2015 season. Detailed series information can be found on page 10.
These are the Facts: Johns Hopkins enters this week’s game against Towson with an all-time record of 957-317-15 (.748). The Blue Jays own nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 44 national championships.
Poll Position: Johns Hopkins is ranked 11th in this week’s USILA Coaches Poll and 14th in the Cascade/Maverick Media Poll. Towson is ranked sixth in the USILA Coaches Poll and is tied for fifth in the Cascade/Maverick Media Poll.
Number 275: Last week’s game against Princeton was the 275th in the head coaching career of Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse coach Dave Pietramala. Pietramala coached 40 games at Cornell (23-17) from 1998-2000 and has since coached 235 at Johns Hopkins since 2001. He sports a 171-64 (.740) record at JHU.
A Familiar Face: Johns Hopkins fans will see a familiar face on the opposite sideline this week as Towson head coach Shawn Nadelen brings his Tigers to Homewood Field.
Nadelen was a standout defender for the Blue Jays from 1998-2001 and a captain on current Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala’s first team in 2001. Nadelen earned Second Team USILA All-America honors as a senior and helped Johns Hopkins to the NCAA Semifinals in 1999 and 2000.
Against the CAA: This week’s game against Towson will be the 83rd all-time for Johns Hopkins against a team from the CAA. Johns Hopkins is 73-9 (.890) all-time against CAA schools with 44 of the first 82 games played against the league coming against Towson.
Balanced Scoring: Johns Hopkins got goals from 10 different players, assists from 10 different players and a total of 14 players registered at least one point in last week’s 17-7 win against Princeton. The 14 assists are the most for Johns Hopkins in a game since 2005, when the Blue Jays notched 14 in a 22-6 win against Marist in the first round of the NCAA Tournament; it was also just the fourth time since 2003 that Hopkins has posted 14 assists in a game.
In addition, the 31 points (17g, 14a) the Blue Jays amassed against the Tigers are the most in a regular season game since April 3, 2006, when JHU rang up 32 points (19g, 13a) against Mount St. Mary’s.
Brown Fifth on JHU Goal-Scoring Chart, 16th in Points: Senior attackman Ryan Brown had his 37-game goal-scoring streak snapped against Princeton, but did extend his point-scoring streak to 38 games with two assists against the Tigers. His two-assist effort pushed his season totals oto11 goals and five assists for 16 points, while he now has career totals of 129 goals and 39 assists for 168 points.
Brown wasted no time getting off to a quick start in 2016 as the returning Second Team All-American scored six goals and added one assist in the win at Navy, chipped in with two goals and one assist at Loyola and added three goals and one assist against North Carolina and the the two assists against Princeton.
Brown scored a school-record 61 goals and added 16 assists for 77 points last season and went on to earn Second Team USILA All-America and Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year honors.
A few notes of interest about Ryan Brown:
• One of 50 men’s players nationally named to the 2016 Tewaaraton Watch List.
• Tied for sixth in school history with 20 career hat tricks. First Johns Hopkins player to notch 20 or more career hat tricks since Bobby Benson had 23 from 2000-03.
• With three goals against North Carolina, he boosted his career total to 129 goals, which moved him past Jeff Cook (128 • 1979-82) into fifth place on JHU’s career goal-scoring list. Mike O’Neill (138 • 1975-78) ranks fourth on the list.
• Had his 37-game goal-scoring streak snapped against Princeton. The streak is the longest by a Johns Hopkins player since Terry Riordan scored in all 56 games in his career from 1992-95. Brown scored 115 goals during his 37-game run.
• Will carry a 38-game point-scoring streak into the game against Towson. The 38-game run is the fourth-longest active streak in the nation and he has 150 points during this time (115g, 35a).
• Jumped to 16th on JHU’s career point-scoring chart with two assists against Princeton. Now has 168 career points (129g, 39a). Passed current offensive coordinator Bobby Benson (167 points • 2000-03) on the list .. next up are Del Dressel 174 points • 1983-86) and Bill Morrill (174 points • 1957-59), who are tied for 14th on the list.
• Six goals at Navy mark just the fourth time since 1955 that a JHU player has scored six or more goals in a season opener. Brown accounts for two of those four instances as he scored seven in the season opener against UMBC last season.
Stanwick Takes Over Scoring Lead: Sophomore attackman Shack Stanwick enjoyed the best game of his career against North Carolina as he punched up two goals and a career-high five assists for a personal-best seven points against the Tar Heels. He came back with a two-goal, three-assist effort in last week’s 17-7 win against Princeton to extend his point-scoring streak to 22 games (he has scored at least one point in every game of his career).
Through four games this season, Stanwick has five goals and a team-high 14 assists for a team-leading 19 points. Stanwick currently leads the nation in assists per game (3.50) and ranks 10th in points per game (4.75). He has registered at least three assists in each of Hopkins’ four games this season. He did not record a three-assist game as a freshman last season.
Stanwick totaled 28 goals and 23 assists last season to finish third on the team in points, second in assists and tied for second in goals. He became the first Johns Hopkins freshman to top the 50-point mark since Brian Piccola (61) and Terry Riordan (54) in 1992 and now has career totals of 33 goals and 37 assists for 70 points.
Midfield Contributing: The Johns Hopkins midfield has been a work in progress as injuries have forced offensive coordinator Bobby Benson to shuffle the lineup early in the season. Continuity will develop as the season plays out, but the group has enjoyed its strongest efforts of the young season in the last two games as the Blue Jays got six goals and four assists from the midfield against UNC and eight goals and five assists from the unit against Princeton.
John Crawley leads all Blue Jay midfielders in scoring with six goals and five assists for 11 points, while Kyle Marr (5g, 1a), Holden Cattoni (5g), Cody Radziewicz (3g), Drew Supinski (2g, 1a), Kieran Eissler (1g, 2a) and Brinton Valis (1g, 2a) all have at least three points on the year. Marr has played attack at times and some of his points have come while on the field as an attackman.
Cattoni notched his eighth career hat trick last week against Princeton and topped the 75-point mark for his career (63g, 14a), while Crawley is second among active JHU middies in career scoring (39g, 22a, 61p).
Extra-Extra: Johns Hopkins converted on 3-of-6 (.500) extra-man chances against Navy, 1-of-2 (.500) at Loyola, 3-of-6 (.500) against North Carolina and 5-of-6 (.833) against Princeton. Johns Hopkins currently ranks seventh in the nation in extra-man offense at 61.1%.
More Extra-Extra: Johns Hopkins scored 38 extra-man goals in 2015 and much of the damage was done by players who are back this season. In fact, players who accounted for all 38 Blue Jay extra-man goals are back, while 23 of the team’s 33 assists accumulated on the extra-man are also back. Hopkins converted 38-of-82 (.463) extra-man chances last season to finish 11th in the nation. The 38 extra-man goals the Blue Jays scored last season were the most for Johns Hopkins since 2003 (40).
New Faces on Defense: Juniors Nick Fields (D) and Joe Carlini (SSDM) are the only two players who saw extended regular playing time on defense last season for the Blue Jays who return to the rotation this season.
Fields is joined on close defense by freshman Patrick Foley, junior transfer Austin Spencer and graduate student transfer Ben Kellar. Kellar started the first three games, but Spencer got the nod against Princeton with Kellar coming off the bench. Spencer had been playing long stick midfield before moving down low.
Carlini’s regular linemates include freshman Robert Kuhn (LSM), senior Derrick Kihembo (LSM), sophomores Tal Bruno (SSDM) and Chris Hubler (SSDM) and senior Kelton Black (SSDM). Kihembo (1g) and Kuhn (1a) worked their way onto the scoresheet against Princeton.
Add in sophomore goalie Brock Turnbaugh, who has made his first career starts in the four games thus far, and senior Matt O’Keefe, a man-down specialist, and the wholesale changes on that end of the field are even more obvious.
Turnbaugh Steady in Goal: Sophomore Brock Turnbaugh made his starting debut against Navy and came away the winner in the 12-11 double-overtime victory. He posted 13 saves, including four in the first quarter and eight in the second half and overtime combined. He came back with a 16-save effort at Loyola and added five ground balls against the Greyhounds before suffering his first tough outing of the season against North Carolina with eight saves in the 15-11 loss to the Tar Heels. The former state champion high school wrestler bounced back against Princeton with a 10-save effort in 56:05 – he allowed five goals before giving way to junior Ryan Feit late in the fourth quarter.
Through four games, he sports a 9.97 goals against average and a .540 save percentage and ranks 35th in the nation in goals against average and 20th in save percentage.
Madarasz, Moreland Lead Faceoff Unit: Johns Hopkins will rely on as many as four faceoff specialists during the 2016 season with senior Craig Madarasz, juniors Kevin O’Toole and Matt Ledwin and sophomore Hunter Moreland all capable of doing the job at the X.
Madarasz missed the entire 2015 season with an injury, but fueled the win at Navy by going 14-of-24 (.583) with one goal and seven ground balls. He came back with a 13-of-21 (.619) performance with six ground balls at Loyola and is now 43-of-79 (.544) with 20 ground balls on the year after a 5-of-7 showing vs. Princeton.
For his career, he had been 26-of-51 (.510) with 19 ground balls and one goal entering the season-opener at Navy, but is now 69-of-130 (.531) with 39 ground balls in his career.
Moreland quickly established himself as one of the top young faceoff specialists in the nation last season as he was 111-of-202 (.550) with 45 ground balls and one assist on the year.
Getting his first extensive playing time of the 2016 season, Moreland fueled the win against Princeton as he went 13-of-19 (.684) with six ground balls.
O’Toole (16-of-34) and Ledwin (2-of-4) saw less time last season, but handled all the faceoff chores in the fall while Madarasz and Moreland worked their way back from injuries and both were impressive. Both have won their only faceoff attempt of the season thus far.
In Overtime: Johns Hopkins is 22-13 all-time in overtime under head coach Dave Pietramala. State Rivalries: Johns Hopkins is 70-12 (.854) under head coach Dave Pietramala in games played against teams from the state of Maryland. Below is a breakdown of JHU’s record against teams from Maryland under Pietramala.
Loyola (12-3)
Maryland (11-6)
Mount St. Mary’s (6-0)
Navy (15-2)
Towson (15-1)
UMBC (11-0)
In the Polls: The Blue Jays are ranked 11th in this week’s USILA Coaches Poll. The Johns Hopkins Athletic Communications Office uses the USILA Poll to represent JHU’s official ranking at the time of a game. Prior to falling out of the top 20 of the USILA Poll on April 26 and May 3, 2010 (JHU was receiving votes in both polls), the Blue Jays had been ranked in the top 20 in 367 consecutive polls dating back to the first poll in 1973.
More Polls: Including the most recent USILA Poll, there have been 440 weekly polls since the inception of the poll in 1973. Amazingly, JHU has been ranked in the top 20 in 435 of those 440 polls (98.9%). The Blue Jays have been in the top 10 in 399 of the 440 and the top five in 304 of those 440. Johns Hopkins has been ranked number one 104 times since the poll debuted in 1973.