Blue Jays stomped by Virginia, 19-8

By Mike Preston Baltimore Sun reporter

May 18, 2009

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The unofficial beginning of Johns Hopkins' surrender started with about seven minutes left in the game. That's when Virginia coach Dom Starsia pulled his starting goalie and defensemen.

The rest was just a formality.

The Blue Jays' often inconsistent attempt to run through the 2009 Division I lacrosse tournament ended with an embarrassing 19-8 quarterfinal loss to the top-seeded Cavaliers on Sunday afternoon before an announced 12,142 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

Johns Hopkins trailed 12-4 at the half, and once the Cavaliers scored the first three goals of the third quarter in the opening four minutes of the period, the game was a blowout. The 11-goal victory was the largest by a playoff opponent against Hopkins. The only time the Blue Jays allowed this many goals in a postseason game was in 1992, when Hopkins lost to Syracuse, 21-16, in a semifinal.

"Virginia played a hell of a game," Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala said. "I think that the bottom line is that we got what we deserved. When you look at the last three or four weeks, we were skating by. Our offense was carrying us a little bit. We weren't doing a great job defensively. They were mistakes we were battling with all year.

"We got outcoached. We got outplayed. We got outhustled. If I had the answer for exactly why, I would have fixed it. There was no one easy answer."

Virginia (15-2) created many headaches for Hopkins. The Blue Jays couldn't contain Virginia's twin-brother combination of midfielders Shamel Bratton (5 goals) and Rhamel Bratton (2 goals). When the Brattons weren't scoring, they were forcing slides to them from the Blue Jays defense, and then dishing off to shooters such as attackman Garrett Billings (4 goals) or playmaking attackman Steele Stanwick (2 goals, 5 assists).

If these players weren't creating problems for Hopkins, then the Blue Jays were creating their own by failing to clear the ball or having too many players on the field. Hopkins picked the wrong time of the year to have its worst performance, and Virginia played its second straight flawless game. The Cavaliers defeated Villanova, 18-6, last week in an opening-round playoff game.

The win was No. 300 for Starsia, who began his coaching career at Brown in 1983. Virginia has scored 10 or more goals in 16 of 17 games this season. Are the Cavaliers peaking at the right time?

"The last two weeks, we played good at both ends of the field. We played a fairly complete lacrosse game," Starsia said. "We probably are playing our best lacrosse of the season over the past two weeks. Hopefully, we can keep it going now."

After Hopkins senior midfielder Brian Christopher scored the first goal of the game with 13:53 left in the first quarter, the game became a nightmare for the Blue Jays and virtually a clinic for Virginia.

The Cavaliers scored on fast breaks and settled situations. They scored goals from close range and long range, and on over-the-shoulder shots. They repeatedly took Hopkins' slow or late-sliding defenders to the goal. If Virginia hadn't lost focus for the final 11 minutes of the third period, the score would have been worse.

Much worse.

"I'm just so disappointed," said Pietramala, whose team ends the season 10-5. "I'm embarrassed. I'm apologetic to our fans and to our university. This isn't Hopkins lacrosse."

It was for 60 minutes Sunday.

Final Four

Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Mass.

Saturday's semifinals

Syracuse (14-2) vs. Duke (14-3), noon

Virginia (15-2) vs. Cornell (12-3), 2 p.m.

Next Monday's championship

1 p.m.