April 30, 2007

Johns Hopkins-Mount St. Mary's Men's Lacrosse Notes
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Setting the Scene: Johns Hopkins travels to Emmitsburg, Maryland for the first time in school history as the Blue Jays (7-4) take on host Mount St. Mary's (3-9) in a rare Monday afternoon game.

Looking Back: Johns Hopkins improved to 7-4 with its third straight win - a 9-7 verdict last Saturday at Towson. Mount St, Mary's rallied from an early 3-0 deficit to top Wagner, 9-6 on Saturday.

Poll Position: Johns Hopkins is ranked fifth in the USILA Coaches Poll (4/23) and fifththe Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll (4/23). Mount St. Mary's is not ranked in either poll The Johns Hopkins Sports Information Office uses the USILA Poll to reflect JHU's official ranking at the time of a game.

These are the Facts: Johns Hopkins enters the game against Mount St. Mary's with an all-time record of 865-272-15 (.757). The Blue Jays own eight NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 43 championships.

Pietramala Stands Alone: Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala is the only person in lacrosse history who has won an NCAA Division I Championship as a player (1987) and a head coach (2005). He is also the only person who has been named the national player of the year and the national coach of the year.

Petro Slides Into Third Place on Career Coaching Victories List at JHU: One week after Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala earned career coaching victory number 100 with an 8-7 win at Maryland, he moved into third place on the all-time coaching victories list at Johns Hopkins with his 78th win at Homewood (the 10-9 win against Navy).
Pietramala now sports an overall record of 102-36, including a 79-19 mark since arriving at Johns Hopkins prior to the 2001 season. Only Hall of Famers Bob Scott and Henry Ciccarone have won more games as the head coach at Johns Hopkins than Pietramala.

Streaking: Johns Hopkins is 63-11 in its last 74 regular season games dating back to the end of the 2001 season and 71-15 overall since the start of the 2002 season.

One-Goal Turnarounds: The 10-9 win against Navy improved Hopkins' recent run of success in one-goal games as JHU is 28-6 in one-goal games under head coach Dave Pietramala. The Blue Jays have won 15 of their last 17 and 19 of their last 22 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 13 times during their last 15 one-goal wins. In nine of those 13 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 last week against Navy, when the Blue Jays erased deficits ot 3-1 and 5-4 to win 10-9.

Comeback Kids: Johns Hopkins has come from behind to win five times this season. The only two games the Blue Jays have not trailed in this season were against UMBC and Hofstra.

Blue Jays Continue Overtime Roll: Johns Hopkins continued an amazing run of success in overtime games with the win at Maryland. The Blue Jays improved to 12-2 in overtime under head coach Dave Pietramala and have currently won eight straight games that have gone to extra time. More impressively, the Blue Jays are 6-1 in road games that have gone to overtime under Pietramala.
In addition, junior Paul Rabil became the first player in school history to score two game-winning goals in overtime in one season as he had previously netted the deciding goal in the second overtime of a 7-6 win against Princeton earlier this season before nailing the winner against the Terps. Records indicate that Johns Hopkins played its first overtime game in the 1973 NCAA Championship game ... a 10-9 double overtime loss to Maryland. Hopkins boasts an overall record of 21-13 in 34 all-time overtime games.
Players on the 2007 team who have scored game-winning goals in overtime:

• Junior Kevin Huntley punched home the game-winner in the second OT against Duke in 2005.
• Sophomore Brian Christopher scored 1:22 into OT against Loyola on May 6, 2006.
• Junior Paul Rabil fired home the game-winner 56 seconds into the 2nd OT against Princeton on March 3 and tallied the game-winner 43 seconds into overtime in at Maryland (4-14-07).

April Reign: Flipping the calendar from March to April usually means good things for the Blue Jays, who are 31-3 in the month of April under head coach Dave Pietramala and 55-3 in April since the start of the 1997 season.

What's Back: The Blue Jays were one of the youngest teams in the nation last season, but still fought their way to within one goal of reaching the final four. The Blue Jays return players who accounted for 125 of their 138 (90.6%) goals last season and 55 of 69 (79.7%) assists they accumulated a year ago.

Class Act: The Blue Jays continue to get balanced offensive production from members of each class. In the win over Maryland it was the juniors (4g, 3a) and sophomores (3g) leading the way, while the juniors (4g) and freshmen (3g, 1a) led the way in the win over against Navy. That group paced the win over Towson as well as the juniors (6g, 1a) and freshmen (2g, 3a) accounted for 12 of JHU's 15 total points in the win.

Class Notes of Interest:
• Freshmen Steven Boyle and Michael Kimmel have combined for at least three points in nine of 11 games thus far.
• Only three seniors have accumulated points through 11 games as Jake Byrne (17g, 6a), Drew Dabrowski (2g, 1a) and Jamison Koesterer (1g, 1a) account for all 28 points the senior class has combined for.
• The junior class accounts for more goals, assists and points than any class on the team with Paul Rabil (17g, 11a), Kevin Huntley (12g, 3a) and Stephen Peyser (8g, 7a) leading the way.

Balanced Extra-Man Scoring: The Blue Jays were successful on 2-of-4 extra-man opportunities in the win over Maryland and have converted 9-of-29 (.310) EMO chances this season. The Blue Jays currently rank 23rd in the nation in extra-man offense.
All six players on JHU's extra-man unit have registered at least one point with Michael Kimmel's five points (2g, 3a) leading the way. Kevin Huntley scored both of JHU's extra-man goals against Maryland and now counts a team-high four EMO goals to his credit.
Johns Hopkins has finished in the top 10 in the nation in extra-man offense four times in the last five years (2002-T4th, 2003-1st, 2004-5th, 2006-9th).

35 in a Row: Last year's NCAA Tournament bid was the 35th straight for Johns Hopkins, which missed the inaugural NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Tournament in 1971, but has qualified for every one since. This is the longest streak of qualifying for the NCAA Tournament in any Division I Team sport.

10 in a Row: The Blue Jays drew the number four seed in last year's NCAA Tournament. This marked the 10th consecutive year Johns Hopkins has been seeded in the top four in the tournament. By comparison, only two other schools (Syracuse & Georgetown) have even qualified for the tournament in each of the last 10 years.

Rabil, Byrne Both Top 100: Senior attackman Jake Byrne and junior midfielder Paul Rabil entered the 2007 season in a race to see which of the two would get to the 100 career point mark first.
Both enterd the game at Navy tied with 97 career points, but Rabil scored three goals to reach the century mark first an he now counts 65 goals and 38 assists to his credit. He has been on a particularly hot streak of late as he has five consecutive games with three points and 23 points over his last seven games (13g, 10a). He currently leads the team in scoring with 17 goals and 11 assists.
Byrne reached the 100-point mark one game later than Rabil as his one-goal, one-assist effort against Towson raised his career totals to 65 goals and 36 assists for 101 points. He also ranks third on the team in scoring with 17 goals and six assists for 28 points.
Next up in the race for 100 career points for the Blue Jays is junior Kevin Huntley, who enters today's game against Mount St. Mary's with career totals of 65 goals and 15 assists for 80 points.

One of Two: Junior midfielder Paul Rabil is one of just two Division I men's lacrosse players returning this season who earned First Team STX/USILA All-America honors (he joins Princeton goalie Alex Hewitt). Rabil became the first Johns Hopkins sophomore since A.J. Haugen in 1998 to earn First Team All-America when he took top honors a year ago. He led the Blue Jays in scoring last season with 25 goals and 13 assists for 38 points.