April 23, 2003

Complete Release in PDF Format - Additional Information Available in This Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

The Game: Top-ranked Johns Hopkins (9-1) plays its final regular-season road game as the Blue Jays travel up Charles Street to take on 10th-ranked Towson (6-4).

A Look Back: Johns Hopkins won its sixth straight with a 17-3 victory over Navy last Saturday. Towson won its second straight and fifth in its last six games with a 17-9 victory at Drexel.

Pulling Rank: Johns Hopkins is ranked first in this week's STX/USILA Poll, while Towson is ranked 10th. The Johns Hopkins Sports Information Office uses this poll as the official poll when listing a team's ranking. The complete poll, as well as the Warrior/Inside Lacrosse Power Poll and Hopkins' week-by-week national ranking, is listed on page 4.

The Coaches: Dave Pietramala is in his third season as the head coach of the Blue Jays. The 2002 USILA National Coach of the Year, he sports an overall record of 52-24 (.684), including a 29-7 (.806) record at Johns Hopkins. He picked up his 50th career coaching victory with the 6-5 overtime victory over Maryland on April 12.

Pietramala spent three years as the head coach at Cornell (1998-2000) before returning to his alma mater prior to the 2001 season. He is the only person in the history of college lacrosse who has earned NCAA Division I National Player of the Year honors (1989) and NCAA Division I National Coach of the Year honors (2000 & 2002).

Tony Seaman is in his 22nd season as a collegiate head coach, including his fifth season at Towson. Seaman enters this week's game against Johns Hopkins with an all-time record of 199-104, including a 35-31 mark with the Tigers.

Hopkins Lacrosse on the Radio: Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse games can be heard on WJFK-AM 1300 in Baltimore. The Johns Hopkins Lacrosse Game of the Week presented by Copy World begins with a pregame show 15 minutes prior to faceoff and includes a 15-minute postgame show. Larry Quinn and Mark Dixon will provide all the play-by-play and expert analysis. All regular-season games (except the games against Albany and Canisius) and NCAA Tournament games will be broadcast.

Hopkins Lacrosse on Television: The Blue Jays are scheduled to hit the air waves four times locally this season. Games against Maryland, Navy and Loyola will air on WMAR, while the JHU-Duke game was aired on Comcast SportsNet. Since 1998, Johns Hopkins has had 37 of its games televised and has posted a 24-13 record in those 37 games.

More Television: In addition to appearing locally on WMAR in Baltimore, several Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse games will also air live nationally on the recently launched College Sports Television (CSTV) Network. CSTV is available as Channel 610 on Direct TV. The Johns Hopkins-Maryland game was the first live broadcast on CSTV and games against Navy and Loyola will also be available live on CSTV as well.

The STX Hopkins Edge: The next edition of the STX Hopkins Edge will air on Saturday, May 3 at 12:30 pm on WMAR (Channel 2) in Baltimore. This in-depth look at Hopkins lacrosse features head coach Dave Pietramala and WMAR lacrosse analysts Keith Mills and Quint Kessenich taking a close look at the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays.

Hopkins Lacrosse on the Web: The official web site for Johns Hopkins athletics is located at www.HopkinsSports.com.

Series Notes

* Johns Hopkins leads the all-time series, 26-3 and has currently won six straight against the Tigers. All three Towson wins in the series have come by a single goal (9-8 in 1989, 14-13 in 1992, and 13-12 in 1996).

* There seems to be no middle ground in the matchup as games are either decided by one or two goals or are blowouts. Dating back to 1989, the teams have met 16 times. Ten of the 16 games have been decided by three goals or less and four have been decided by seven goals or more.

* The two teams have combined for at least 25 goals in eight of the last nine meetings and 30 or more goals in five of the last nine games.

Noting the Tigers: After a 1-3 start against strong competition, the Tigers have won five of their last six to improve to 6-4 entering their regular-season finale against Johns Hopkins. Towson has already clinched the CAA regular-season title with a 5-0 league mark and will host a CAA-Semifinal game next Wednesday. A win there would give Towson the opportunity to host the CAA Championship game next Saturday with a chance to secure the league's automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

Head coach Tony Seaman boasts a deep and talented offensive group and an underrated defensive unit. The Tigers have scored 13 or more goals six times this season and have held the opposition to 10 goals or less in all but one game. Towson ranks seventh nationally in scoring offense and 10th in extra man offense. TU is also tied for 12th in scoring margin (+3.20).

Offensively, Ryan Obloj is the key to the Tigers' success. He currently leads the team in scoring with 15 goals and 16 assists and does what every coach wants the quarterback of his offense to do - make the players around him better. Fellow seniors Hunter Lochte (20g, 5a) and Todd Spear (13g) start with Obloj on attack.

Senior Brad Monaco (11g, 15a) and junior Drew Pfarr (10g, 4a) anchor the first and second midfields, respectively. Five of Towson's top six middies have 10 or more points and four of the six have scored seven or more goals.

Senior LSM Dan Cocchi is one of the best in the business and is adept at jump-starting the transition game. His athleticism allows him to matchup with the top midfielders in the country. Senior close defensemen Neil Adams and Adam Baxter team with junior Joe Smith to give Towson one of the most experienced defensive units in the nation. The trio has done an excellent job of limiting the looks the opposition has gotten against sophomore goalie Reed Sothoron (112 saves on the year).

A key to the game with the Blue Jays will be the faceoffs, and Towson boasts two of the nation's best in that area. Senior Zak Smith has won 67-of-110 (.609) and junior Ben DeFelice is 69-of-118 (.585). As a team, Towson ranks fifth in the nation in faceoff winning percentage.

These Are The Facts: Johns Hopkins enters this week's game against Towson with an all-time record of 815-260-15 (.755) in 114 seasons of play. The Blue Jays own seven NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and 6 ILA titles for a total of 42 national championships.

Captain My Captain: Senior attackman Bobby Benson (Baltimore, MD/McDonogh), senior midfielder Adam Doneger (Hewlett, NY/Lynbrook), senior defenseman Michael Peyser (Lloyd Harbor, NY/Cold Spring Harbor), junior defenseman Greg Raymond (Corning, NY/Corning East) and senior goalie Rob Scherr (Reisterstown, MD/McDonogh) have been selected as team captains for Johns Hopkins this season.

All In the Family: For the third consecutive season, the Johns Hopkins coaching staff consists entirely of Johns Hopkins graduates. Head coach Dave Pietramala and assistant coaches Seth Tierney (class of 1991), Bill Dwan (1991) and Pat Miller (2001) all earned their degree at JHU. Prior to the 2001 season when Pietramala, Tierney, Dwan and Howard Offit comprised the Blue Jay coaching staff, the last time the entire coaching staff was made up of JHU graduates was 1984, when the Blue Jays were coached by Don Zimmerman (1976), who was assisted by Jerry Pfeifer (1966), Joe Devlin (1978), Fred Smith (1950), Joe Cowan (1969), and Dennis Townsend (1966).

Tough: Johns Hopkins is once again playing arguably the most difficult schedule in the nation. The Blue Jays play the three other teams that advanced to the Final Four last season (Syracuse, Princeton and Virginia), all four ACC schools (Virginia, Duke, North Carolina and Maryland) and in-state rivals Towson, Loyola and Navy. All nine of those teams were ranked in the preseason top 15. Officially, JHU checked in at number three in the 2003 Face-Off Yearbook/UnderArmour Strength of Schedule Rankings.

Brother Act: The Blue Jays have three sets of brothers on this year's team and three other players whose brother previously played for Hopkins. The brothers on this year's team include Bobby Benson and Joe Benson, Michael Peyser and Greg Peyser and Todd Smith and Scott Smith. In addition, Corey Harned's older brother, Chris Harned, was an attackman for the Blue Jays from 1997-2000, while Peter LeSueur's older brother, Paul LeSueur, was a defensive middie and a captain on the 2000 team that advanced to the Final Four. Freshman defender Andrew DiConza is the younger brother of P.J. DiConza, a captain and Third Team All-America defenseman on the 2002 team.

Prepping for May: Johns Hopkins is 37-1 (.974) in games played in the month of April since the beginning of the 1997 season. JHU's only loss during that time was a 10-9 loss at Maryland during the 2001 season.

More Prepping: JHU is 55-6 (.902) in games played in the month of April since 1993.

A Final Prep: JHU has won 24 straight home games in the month of April.

Anytime, Anywhere: This week's game against 10th-ranked Towson will be the 26th in the last 27 games away from Homewood Field for the Blue Jays against a team ranked in the top 15.

Home Sweet Home: Johns Hopkins has won 17 straight games at Homewood Field and is 18-1 at home under head coach Dave Pietramala. The Blue Jays' only home loss under Pietramala was a 9-8 loss in four overtimes to Virginia two years ago. The current 17-game home winning streak is the longest for Johns Hopkins since the Blue Jays won 31 straight home games from 1982-85.

More Home: Johns Hopkins has outscored its six opponents at Homewood Field this season, 95-33.

It's Great for Ratings: Six of JHU's 14 games last season were decided by one goal and four more this season have been one-goal affairs. Dating back to the 2001 season, 15 of Hopkins' last 36 games have been decided by one goal. JHU is 12-3 in those 15 games.

More Ratings: Since the beginning of the 2001 season, 24 of JHU's 36 games have been decided by three goals or less.

Road Ratings: Johns Hopkins has played four road games this season. One was decided by two goals and the other three were decided by one goal (including two in overtime).

One-Goal Turnarounds: JHU is 12-3 in one-goal games since the start of the 2001 season. In its previous 15 one-goal games (covering a span from 1995-2000), Hopkins was 7-8.

Another One-Goal Turnaround: JHU's 12 one-goal victories in the last two plus years are one more than the Blue Jays accumulated in the previous seven seasons combined (1994-2000).

Younger Than You Think: A year ago, the Blue Jays started just two seniors on their way to the Final Four. While experienced, the Blue Jays are still relatively young. The Blue Jays have more sophomores (5) than seniors (4) in the starting lineup.

More Younger: Of the 18 players who have played in every game this season, only four are seniors.

Lucky Number Eight: Johns Hopkins started the same 10 players in all 14 games last season. Eight of those 10 players return this season. Only goalie Nick Murtha and defenseman P.J. DiConza graduated after starting last season.

Another Eight: Hopkins has its top eight scorers from last season back this year.

Top This: Of the 138 goals the Blue Jays scored last season, 132 (95.7%) were scored by players who are back this season.

Consider it Topped: Of the 85 assists the Blue Jays were credited with last season, 83 (97.6%) were registered by players who return this season.

Just to Make it Official: Of the 223 points Hopkins amassed last season (138 goals / 85 assists), 215 (96.4%) were registered by players who return this season.

Doing the Little Things: Through 10 games, Johns Hopkins holds a commanding 343-275 (+6.8/game) advantage in ground balls and has won 157-of-244 (.643) faceoffs. As a team, Johns Hopkins ranks second in the nation in faceoff winning percentage (.643).

Quick Starts: JHU has outscored the opposition, 41-12 in the first quarter this season and 78-30 in the first half.

Ahead of the Pace: Last season, Johns Hopkins scored 138 goals in 14 games. In 10 games this season, the Blue Jays have already scored 136 goals.

More Pacing: Johns Hopkins accumulated 85 assists last season. Through 10 games this year, the Blue Jays already have 90 assists.

A Final Pace: The 226 points Hopkins has accumulated in 10 games this season are three more points than the Blue Jays amassed during the entire 2002 season.

ACC Champs: Johns Hopkins became the first team ever to complete a regular-season sweep of the four ACC lacrosse-playing schools. Making it more impressive was the fact that Hopkins defeated Virginia, North Carolina, Duke and Maryland on consecutive Saturdays. Princeton did defeat all four ACC schools in 1997, but two of the four wins came in the NCAA Tournament.

A Defensive Group: Johns Hopkins has held each of its last four opponents to six goals or less. This is the first time the Blue Jays have held four straight opponents to six goals or less since 1989, when JHU held Washington College, Rutgers, Princeton and Virginia to six goals or less in consecutive games.

More Defensive: The 20 goals Johns Hopkins has allowed in the last four games are the fewest allowed by the Blue Jays in a four-game span since 1999, when Hopkins defeated Ohio State (17-8), Maryland (13-3), St. Joe's (31-7) and Navy (11-1) and allowed just 19 goals in that span.

Regular-Season Roll: Johns Hopkins is 23-2 (.920) in its last 25 regular season games. This is the best 25-game regular season run for Johns Hopkins since JHU won 24-of-25 regular season games covering a span from 1984-86.

More Rolls: Dating back to last season, Johns Hopkins is 18-2 in its last 20 games (including the NCAA playoffs). Hopkins' two losses during that time have come by a total of three goals.

A Final Roll: Wins this week against Towson and next week against Loyola would give Johns Hopkins 11 regular season wins in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1980 and 1981. JHU was 11-1 in the regular season last year.

Topping the Charts: Johns Hopkins ranks first in the nation in man-down defense (27-of-30 (.900) killed) and scoring margin (+6.5 goals per game).

Not Far Behind: In addition to ranking first nationally in man-down defense and scoring margin, the Blue Jays also rank second in the nation in scoring offense (13.6 goals/game), faceoff winning percentage (.643), extra-man offense (.442) and winning percentage (.900) and sixth in scoring defense (7.1 goals/game).