Two days prior to Johns Hopkins' annual showdown with Syracuse, the Blue Jays have a dilemma to solve: who to start at goalkeeper Saturday night at 8 p.m. at Homewood Field.
Senior Michael Gvozden has started all six games thus far, ranking ninth in Division I in goals-against average (7.71) and 16th in save percentage (.558). But he was pulled after surrendering three goals in the first 8 minutes, 5 seconds of the first quarter against No. 6 Hofstra last Saturday night. Sophomore Steven Burke finished up in an eventual 14-6 loss.
Coach Dave Pietramala said he has not made up his mind on who will start against the 11-time, reigning national champion Orange.
"They've all been told that there's an opportunity right now – including Michael," Pietramala said. "They've all been told that we want to see how everybody performs in practice, we want to see some consistency, we want to see goalies reacting to the ball, we want to see how the defense reacts to them, we want to evaluate how they handle communicating and those sorts of things. Quite honestly, I've seen Michael do those things, so I know what he can do there. The issue is I have not seen a lot of the other guys do that. So now, I've taken the time to watch more closely what Steven Burke is doing and what [freshman] Pierce Bassett is doing. But the decision has not been made. I actually will be speaking with all three of them today, and I won't make that decision and I won't share it with them until I cam 100 percent certain and comfortable that I am doing what is best for my team."
Pietramala said there are four reasons for removing a goalie: poor performance in a game, sloppy play over a span of several games, slow response time to shots or a desire to shake up the team.
"For us, it was the latter two reasons," Pietramala said. "I didn't like the way he was reacting to the ball – and I'm not saying the goals were his fault because quite honestly, they weren't. But you look at your goalie and say, 'Well, he's not even moving there,' or 'He didn't step well,' or 'He's not getting his stick down there. He's not reacting to the shots well.' And we needed a spark. We've had some difficulty playing up there, so I just felt like that was the time. So rather than wait and let it get away from us, we felt like we tried to give us a spark right then and there."
Pietramala said Burke was decent in his first extensive showing of the season.
"I think Steven played OK. I don't think he played great, I don't think he played poorly. I really don't think we gave him much of a chance. I felt like we probably asked too much of him at that point in time. It was a very difficult circumstance to go in – on very little warm-up, on a pouring evening with 50 miles-per-hour winds, and probably the biggest detriment was how the team in front of him was playing. So I don't fault Steven at all."
In other Johns Hopkins news, Pietrama confirmed that senior attackman Chris Boland will miss the remainder of the season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in the second quarter of a 16-10 victory over UMBC on March 9.
Pietramala acknowledged that losing Boland, last year's leading scorer who returned from a three-game suspension to score four goals in two games this season, hurts.
"But we should still be able to run our offense," Pietramala said. "Quite honestly, we've done it for three games prior. So if there is a silver lining – that Chris did not play for the first three games – that is it. We've prepared that way, and we've played that way, so it's not like we haven't been in that situation."
Pietramala said Boland is considering applying for a medical redshirt, and he still has an extra year of eligibility after sitting out 2008 campaign. Boland is disappointed about the injury, but he is still a valuable member of the team.
"Chris is a competitor," Pietramala said. "He loves Johns Hopkins and he loves his teammates. The fact that he's not out there, he's probably heartbroken. That being said, Chris has been a great influence on this team over the last week or so in terms of helping the younger guys, in terms of being positive. Last night, they had a shoot-around, just to throw the ball underneath the lights. Nothing formal, nothing required. And Chris was there. So that tells you something. … He can really be a positive influence on this team without being on the field."