May 17, 2008

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ANNAPOLIS, MD - Senior Paul Rabil and sophomore Steven Boyle both scored three goals and Johns Hopkins held host Navy to just one goal over the final three quarters as the Blue Jays eased past the Midshipmen, 10-4, in the NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Quarterfinals at Navy's Marine Corps Stadium. The win, the seventh straight overall and 35th straight for Johns Hopkins against Navy, improves the Blue Jays' record to 10-5. Navy finishes the season at 10-6.

With the win, Johns Hopkins advances to the final four for the second consecutive year and the sixth time in the last seven years. The Blue Jays, who won the national championship a year ago, are the first defending national champion to advance to the final four since Syracuse got back in 2003 after winning the 2002 championship.

Leading just 5-3 at the half, the Blue Jays came out and took control in the third quarter as they outscored the Midshipmen 3-0 in the period. After just over six scoreless minutes to open the half, Rabil broke through when he worked to the middle of the field after rolling his defender twice to each side, found space down the middle and bounced home a 12-yarder.

The three-goal lead held until the last two minutes of the period, when Hopkins got back-to-back goals in a span of just nine seconds to extend the lead to 8-3 at the end of the third quarter. Senior Kevin Huntley's second goal of the game with 1:36 on the clock made it 7-3 as he swept in from the side, split a pair of defenders and found the far post despite Navy goalie Tommy Phelan getting a piece of the shot. Boyle capped his first hat trick since March 4 nine seconds later when he took a pass from senior Stephen Peyser off the faceoff and raced in from the side before slipping shot between Phelan's legs from in tight.

Navy finally broke a scoreless streak of 33:11 when the Midshipmen capitalized on a Blue Jay turnover. After Hopkins goalie Michael Gvozden came up with a save, the Blue Jays grabbed the loose ball, but got pinned in near the sideline and turned the ball over. Evan Sullivan then quickly found Gregory Clement 10 yards in front of the goal and Clement fired home his 14th goal of the season. That would be the only goal Navy would score over the final three quarters of the game. In addition, the scoreless streak of 33:11 marks the 11th time this season the Blue Jays have held an opponent scoreless for 20 minutes or longer.

The Blue Jays milked the final 10 minutes of the game and tallied twice in the final 4:25 with Navy pressuring and double-teaming. Rabil completed his hat trick when he came up with a ground ball behind the cage and raced to the front of the goal before scoring from in tight. Junior Brian Christopher closed the scoring with 46 seconds remaining as he slipped inside a defender along the goal line and fired into an open net.

A frenetic first quarter that saw the teams combine for 13 turnovers ended with the Midshipmen holding a 3-2 advantage. Rabil opened the scoring for the Blue Jays with 12:44 on the clock as he split a double team to Phelan's right, worked his way back to the middle of the field and side-armed a shot past Phelan while falling to his knees.

Navy struck back for two straight goals in a four-minute span late in the period to take its first lead at 2-1. Junior Michael Beggins got the Midshipmen on the board when he slipped a 12-yard shot inside the far post that seemed to be more tricky than it was fast. Senior Nick Mirabito made it 2-1 with 2:17 remaining in the opening quarter as he beat Gvozden from a tough angle. Gvozden got a piece of the shot, but it had just enough on it to find the back of the net.

The Blue Jays appeared to grab the momentum back late in the quarter when Boyle dodged hard to the goal from the edge of the box to Phelan's right and dove across the top of the crease and scored. That momentum was gone before the quarterfinal record crowd of 17,017 had sat down.

Navy, which won 9-of-10 first half faceoffs, needed just five seconds to retake the lead as Mikelis Visgauss pushed the ensuing faceoff forward and raced into the offensive zone before slipping a shot past Gvozden from seven yards out. The back-to-back goals by Boyle and Visgauss in a five second span are the third-fastest back-to-back goals in NCAA Division I history.

The goal by Visgauss would be the last for Navy until Clement's goal early in the fourth quarter and the Blue Jays took control by out-scoring the Midshipmen 3-0 in the second quarter.

Boyle one-timed a nifty pass from Rabil past a defenseless Phelan from the doorstep to tie the game at 3-3 and Govzden then made what turned out to be the game-changing play. Mirabito worked his way in tight after a failed Johns Hopkins clearing attempt, but Gvozden stoned him and quickly found Peyser in transition. Peyser pushed the ball into the Navy zone and dished to Huntley, who side-stepped a defender and blistered a shot from eight yards out to make it 4-3.

A Tommy Duerr goal with 58 seconds remaining the second quarter gave the Blue Jays the 5-3 lead at the half, a lead that held until Rabil ignited the 3-0 third-quarter run with his second goal of the game.

Rabil further etched his name in the Johns Hopkins record book with his three-goal, one-assist effort as he became the Blue Jays' career scoring leader in the NCAA Tournament as he now has 21 goals and 21 assists in 12 career tournament games. Brian Wood (1984-87) previously held the record with 39 points.

Gvozden finished with 13 saves to anchor a Johns Hopkins defensive effort that held Navy to just the four goals on 35 shots.

Navy did not have a player with more than one point and Phelan posted six saves in goal for the Midshipmen. Visgauss scored the one goal and won 10-of-16 faceoffs, but the Blue Jays found the answer at the X in the second half as they took 6-of-8 after intermission.

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