With a dramatic, come-from-behind 9-8 victory against
Duke in the NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship,
Johns Hopkins crowned an unforgettable season of perfection
and earned the Blue Jays their eighth national NCAA title
and first since 1987.
The
Blue Jays entered the
championship game, held on May 30 at Philadelphia's Lincoln
Financial Field, with a 15-0 record and pitted against the
nation's second-ranked and top-scoring team. In front of a
record crowd of 44,920, sophomore goalie and tournament MVP
Jesse Schwartzman and the rest of the Hopkins defense shut
down the high-powered Blue Devils, allowing just one goal
in the final 30 minutes of play.
Duke carried a 7-6 lead into the second half and
pushed the lead to 8-6 just 2:17 into the third quarter.
However, Hopkins fought back to tie the game 8-8, and then
with 13:35 remaining in the contest, sophomore Jake Byrne
scored what would be the decisive game-winning goal.
With the win, the Blue Jays became only the third team
since 1971 — when the NCAA began sponsoring the men's
lacrosse national championship — to post a perfect
16-0 record.
"I am so proud of these guys right now," head coach
Dave Pietramala said in the post-game press conference.
"When we lost a year ago [in the semifinals], people told
us that we quit. They just kept working. When we got back
to campus, they made a commitment that we were just going
to take it one day at a time and we were going to play to
the best of our ability. I'm just so proud of these kids,
our fans and our administration."
Kyle Harrison at Tewaaraton
event
PHOTO BY HIPS / JAY VAN RENSSELAER
|
To think, the team came within 12.9 seconds of once
again ending their season in the semi's.
In Saturday's semifinal contest against Virginia, the
Cavaliers had scored the go-ahead and apparent game-winning
goal in the final minute of regular time. A miracle was
needed, and JHU got one in the form of a possession series
that will surely go down in the annals of an already
storied lacrosse history. Greg Peyser won the ensuing
faceoff for the Blue Jays and raced down the right side
into the offensive zone, where he skipped a perfect
cross-field pass to Byrne, who quickly dodged to his left
and launched a strike by the Virginia goalie with 1.4
seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to force the game
into overtime.
In the first overtime period, after a series of clutch
saves by Schwartzman, senior defensive midfielder Benson
Erwin scored only his fourth goal of the season with 50.7
seconds remaining to lift Hopkins to its second NCAA
Championship game in three years. The thrilling, classic
game had already featured a dramatic comeback by the
Cavaliers, a thunderstorm, 46-minute delay and the first
scoreless opening quarter in NCAA playoff history. The win
also helped avenge a Blue Jays loss to Virginia in the 2003
title game.
JHU's senior class ended its career with a record of
55-6, one national championship and four trips to the Final
Four. Senior standout midfielder Kyle Harrison was
presented on June 2 with the 2005 Tewaaraton Trophy as the
nation's top player. Harrison, who had been among five
finalists for the award as a sophomore and junior, is the
first Hopkins recipient of the award, which began in
2001.
Harrison concluded a standout career by leading the
Blue Jays to a national championship and their first
undefeated season since 1984. He led the team in goals
(24), assists (20) and points (44), and won 39 of 64 (.609)
faceoffs on the year. He also earned First Team STX/USILA
All-America honors for the second straight season and was
named to the NCAA All-Tournament Team, along with
Schwartzman and Peyser.
Pietramala, now in his fifth year as head coach,
became the first person in the history of college lacrosse
to win an NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship as
both a player and head coach. Pietramala was a three-time
First Team All-American during his playing career at Johns
Hopkins and led the Blue Jays to the 1987 NCAA Division I
Championship.
For more lacrosse championship information and photos,
go to
webapps.jhu.edu/jhuniverse/today/lax05.cfm.
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