March 3, 2008

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Setting the Scene: Johns Hopkins and UMBC make the quick turnaround from games Saturday afternoon when both teams picked up victories. This is the sixth all-time meeting in a series that dates to a 15-4 Johns Hopkins victory in 1983.

Looking Back: Johns Hopkins ran its winning streak to 11 games with a not-as-close-as-the-score-indicates 14-9 victory over then ninth-ranked Princeton. UMBC jumped out to a 6-2 halftime lead and held off a late rally by 16th-ranked Denver to snap a two-game season-opening losing streak.

These are the Facts: Johns Hopkins enters the game against UMBC with an all-time record of 873-272-15 (.759). The Blue Jays own nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 44 championships.

Yes, That's 601 Games Over .500: Saturday's win against Princeton improved the Blue Jays' all-time record to 873-272-15 ... that's 601 games over .500. To put this in perspective: JHU has played an average of just under 15 games per season under head coach Dave Pietramala. Using a 15-game season as a reference, if the Blue Jays posted a 5-10 record for 120 straight seasons, they would still be one game over .500.

Poll Position: Johns Hopkins sits atop the USILA Preseason Coaches Poll and the Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll this week. UMBC is not ranked in either the coaches poll or the media poll.

As Number One: Saturday's game against Princeton was the 51st the Blue Jays have played under head coach Dave Pietramala as the top-ranked team in the nation. With the win the Blue Jays improved to 44-7 (.863) under Pietramala when playing with the number-one ranking. In the five years prior to Pietramala taking over in 2001 (1996-2001), JHU played exactly one game as the top ranked team in the nation.

125th Anniversary: The 2008 season marks the 125th anniversary of the Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse program. The Blue Jays are wearing commemorative patches on their uniforms for the 125th anniversary of the program (it is NOT the 125th season) and the logo is being used in a variety of printed pieces to promote the anniversary.

Program Ties: There are several ties between the Johns Hopkins and UMBC men's lacrosse programs. Among them:

• Current UMBC head coach Don Zimmerman is a 1976 Johns Hopkins graduate and was an honorable mention All-America selection as a midfielder in 1975. He played two years at JHU (1975-76) after transferring from Randolph-Macon.
• Don Zimmerman served as the head coach at Johns Hopkins from 1984-1990 and posted a 73-15 (.830) record during his tenure at JHU. He guided the Blue Jays to the NCAA Championship in 1984, 1985 and 1987.
• Current Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala played his entire career (1986-89) at JHU for Don Zimmerman.
• Current JHU associate head caoch Bill Dwan played his first three seasons at JHU (1988-90) for Don Zimmerman.
• Current JHU assistant coach Bobby Benson served as the offensive coordinator at UMBC under Don Zimmerman in 2005.
• Eric Zerrlaut is the nephew of Kathy Zerrlaut, the Senior Associate Director of Athletics at UMBC. Kathy Zerrlaut coached over 850 games in volleyball and lacrosse at UMBC before moving into a purely administrative role.

One-Goal Turnarounds: The 12-11 win over Duke in the 2007 NCAA Championship game improved Hopkins' recent run of success in one-goal games as JHU is 30-6 in one-goal games under head coach Dave Pietramala. The Blue Jays have won 17 of their last 19 and 21 of their last 24 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 14 times during their last 17 one-goal wins. In 10 of those 14 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 against Notre Dame, when the Blue Jays erased a 4-1 second-quarter deficit.

In Case We Go Extra: In addition to the Blue Jays' success in one-goal games under head coach Dave Pietramala, Johns Hopkins has also enjoyed a favorable run in overtime games. The Blue Jays have currently won nine straight overtime games dating back to a 10-9 win at Navy in 2004. JHU is 13-2 all-time in overtime under Pietramala's guidance, including an impressive 6-1 in overtime games played on the road.

Players on the 2008 team who scored game-winning goals in overtime during their career:
• Senior Kevin Huntley punched home the game-winner in the second OT against Duke in 2005.
• Junior Brian Christopher scored 1:22 into OT against Loyola on May 6, 2006.
• Senior Paul Rabil fired home the game-winner 56 seconds into the 2nd OT against Princeton on March 3, 2007 and tallied the game-winner 43 seconds into overtime at Maryland (4-14-07). He is the only player in school history who has scored two overtime game-winners in the same season.
• Sophomore Michael Kimmel became the first freshman in school history to score an overtime goal in an NCAA Tournament game when he netted the game-winner one-minute into overtime against Notre Dame last season.

Comeback Kids: The Blue Jays trailed - albeit briefly- vs. Albany and Johns Hopkins came from behind to win eight times last season, including six times during the season-ending nine-game winning streak. JHU trailed in its first two NCAA Tournament games, but never trailed during the Final Four.

Streaking: Johns Hopkins is 67-11 in its last 78 regular season games dating back to the end of the 2001 season and 79-15 overall since the start of the 2002 season.

Win Streaks Under Petro: Johns Hopkins ended the 2007 season with a nine-game winning streak and has pushed the streak to 11 in a row with the season-opening wins over Albany and Princeton. The 11-game winning streak is the fifth wining streak of eight games or longer under head coach Dave Pietramala and is currently tied for the second-longest winning streak in his tenure.

At M&T Bank Stadium: Saturday's game against Princeton was the seventh Johns Hopkins has played at M&T Bank Stadium. The Blue Jays are now 5-2 all-time at the home of the NFL's Baltimore Ravens. JHU won all three of its games at M&T last season, including a 7-6 double-overtime win against Princeon in the Face-Off Classic and a 12-11 win against Duke in the NCAA Championship game.

Something About M&T: Think the Blue Jay offense has warmed to playing at M&T Bank Stadium? JHU led Duke 10-4 at halftime of the 2007 NCAA Championships game, led Princeton 10-1 at halftime last Saturday and scored a total of 26 goals in those two games.

A Defensive Group: Johns Hopkins held all 17 of its opponents scoreless for a span of least 9:32 last season and held the opposition scoreless for a span of 10:45 or longer 23 times during the 2007 season. JHU held Albany scoreless for a streak of 27:03 during the season-opening 10-5 win and kept Princeton off the board for the first 23:04 last Saturday. The streak of over 27 scoreless minutes for the Great Danes marks the seventh time since the start of the 2007 season that Hopkins has held an opponent scoreless for 25 minutes or longer.

More Defensive: Albany scored its first goal just 36 seconds into the game against JHU. The Great Danes scored exactly one more goal in the next 41:21.

Still More Defensive: Princeton scored exactly one goal in the first 35:18 against JHU last Saturday.

Don't Forget the Offense: While the focus of any Dave Pietramala-coached team will always be defense, the Blue Jay offense has gotten off to a good start this season. Consider:

• The 24 goals the Blue Jays have scored are the most in the first two games of a season since 2004, when JHU also scored 24 goals in the first two games (10 vs. Penn and 14 vs. Princeton).
• As a team the Blue Jays have scored on 35.3% of their shots through two games (24-of-68). JHU connected on 28.8% of its shots en route to national championship a year ago.
• Dating back to the end of last season, JHU has scored in double figures seven times in its last eight games and is averaging 12.0 goals per game during that time.

Offensive-Defensive Perspective: Johns Hopkins has allowed a total of 14 goals in two games. Conversely, the Blue Jays have scored 14 first-half goals thus far.

Playing the Possession Game: JHU won the ground ball war against Princeton, 40-31, one week after taking the same battle by a 40-29 count against Albany.

Kevin and Dave Huntley Make History: When Johns Hopkins slipped past Duke, 12-11, for the national championship last spring, there were plenty of members of the Huntley family in high spirits. After all, then junior attackman Kevin Huntley scored three times in the title game and punched home what proved to be the game-winning goal with 3:25 remaining in the fourth quarter. The national championship is the second for the Blue Jays since Huntley arrived in 2005.
A little research reveals that Huntley's game-winner also lifted he and his father, Dave, into the record books. Dave Huntley was a standout midfielder for Johns Hopkins from 1976-79 and was a member of the Blue Jays' 1978 and 1979 NCAA Championship teams.
It is believed that Dave and Kevin Huntley are the first father and son to win multiple NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championships as players. There are sets of brothers who have won multiple titles (Gary and Paul Gait) and fathers who have coached their sons to championships (Henry Ciccarone, Bill Tierney), but Dave and Kevin Huntley are the only father and son in the history of the sport to each win more than one NCAA Division I title as players.

Player Notes of Interest Available in PDF Format