Men's Lacrosse: Hopkins to test Tigers

The No. 12 men’s lacrosse team handled Hofstra with relative ease last week and the Tigers (1-0) refuse to be intimidated as they head south to Baltimore to play No. 3 Johns Hopkins in the teams’ 83rd meeting. The games are sure to be close: The Blue Jays (3-0) are ranked third and the Tigers are 12th in both the USILA Coaches and Inside Lacrosse Media Polls.

In the all-time series, which dates back to 1890, the Hopkins leads 55-27. They took down Princeton at the Class of 1952 Stadium last year, 10-8. However, the Tigers have beaten the Blue Jays in three of their last four meetings. Moreover, Hopkins is in almost the same position as Princeton this year, as the Baltimore team graduated five starting seniors after the 2012 season, while the Tigers graduated seven.

Of the 23 players who started for Princeton in its last game at JHU in 2011, only six will return to Homewood Field — junior offensive middie Tom Schreiber, senior attack Jeff Froccaro, senior captain and shortstick defensive middie Chris White, junior shortstick defensive middie Jack Strabo, former close defense and current junior shortstick defensive middie Nick Fernandez and senior shortstick defensive middie Bobby Lucas. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays bring eight of their starters from the 2011 matchup.

“I have to say that one of the biggest parts of every sport, not just lacrosse, is experience on the field,” Lucas said. “Obviously we have a young team in terms of games played and games started, but the freshmen, sophomores and even the previously-bench-player older group of guys have a maturity that is beyond what would be expected of them.”

“It’s always a battle of who can bring something new to the table,” he added. “Neither team has changed a lot. We both know what to expect of each other. Ultimately, though, we have a good chance to stick it to [Hopkins] though we are very young and have four or five starting freshmen. It’s because our young guys are excellent at preparation—they craft their game plans for specific teams. In that way they’re very methodical, and even robotic at times, in their approach.”

Lucas ranks second in Division I men’s lacrosse in percentage of face-offs won. Characteristic of the teams’ longstanding rivalry, Hopkins’ Mike Poppleton is the only player to sit ahead of Lucas in the face-off rankings. Poppleton is 40 for 50, with an .800 percentage thus far in the season. Lucas won six of eight for a .750 percentage all in the second half against Hofstra — the Tigers’ only opponent so far.

“Poppleton is one of the best faceoff guys in Division I lacrosse right now,” Lucas said. “Last year, he got the better of me and our team — he just beat us out in almost every one of the draws. What I’ve done personally is to scout what he does, to figure out his tendencies. In reality, it’s not just about me and the way I play but it’s about my teammates as well. Every face-off entails two wing players, so the three of us have focused on becoming a more in sync unit. Without talking, we’ve developed an awareness of what to do on particular face-off.”

In addition to developing its already-stellar offense, Princeton utilized its defensive lineup — which is entirely new aside from junior defenseman Derick Raabe, the one player who had played before this season — and played four freshmen to top Hofstra in front of a drenched crowd of 1,556 last weekend. The 10-7 win came in spite of a 3-1 deficit in the first quarter.

“Offensively, we played really, really great against Hofstra,” Lucas said. “The system that [Head] Coach [Chris] Bates and [offensive coordinator Michael] Podgajny have put into place has really allowed for all the offensive guys to be a threat at all times, so our guys are able to get a high volume of shots off. The takeaway from last weekend is that we can improve on defense. It’s obviously a young group. They are already great at guarding and are good on the ball but our defense can improve on its off-ball presence. The goals Hostfra scored were because players were able to feed on someone not watching ball too much. We should be fine on ball this weekend, but it’s really going to be about the off-ball presence and becoming a threat there this weekend and moving forward.”

While the Blue Jays have been particularly unstoppable in the first and third quarter of their three games this season, they have tended to lose steam in the second and fourth frames. JHU has outscored the opposition 15-2 in the first quarter and 11-3 in the third, while the margin is narrower in the second (8-8) and fourth (10-7).

“This year, it has been the case — both against Hofstra and in our scrimmages — that we start slow and get kicked around, then we start the fire and start playing,” Lucas said. “Hopkins comes out strong, then they get a little sloppier as the game goes on. So we’re dealing with two very different styles of play. Our coaches have hammered in all week that this is going to be a 15-round fight. They’re right — we have to play all the way to end. We have to deal with ebbs and flows of game — they might put it in early and we have to withstand that blow and fire back. It’s also true that they’ve played weaker opponents so far, so they might be deliberately tapering off. It could also be the case that they may come out too excited against us wear down.”

One Tiger in particular, assistant coach Greg Raymond, has an additional stake in the outcome. Raymond played at JHU from 2001-05, was a three-time captain for the Blue Jays (2003-05) and helped them to an undefeated season and the 2005 National Championship as a senior.

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“Obviously [assistant coach Raymond] was a loyal Blue Jay while he was at Hopkins,” Lucas said. “Now that he’s with us, he’s an Orange and Black guy all the way. He definitely especially prepares for this game since he is going up against his former coach and some of his teammates that are now coaching. So he’s got a personal chip on his shoulder for this game. You see it in the passion he brings to our matchups against Hopkins and the ways he prepares us for this game and we can tell that he has a little extra fire here.”

While the Tigers are off to a good start, they will all need a little extra fire to overcome one of their toughest opponents of the season.