Michael Gvozden has had performances like the 14-save effort he posted in No. 8 Johns Hopkins' 10-7 loss to No. 2 Syracuse on Saturday night at Homewood Field in Baltimore.
But it was still nice to see the senior goalkeeper pull through after being benched for sophomore Steven Burke in last Saturday's 14-6 loss to No. 6 Hofstra.
"I think the only person I needed to answer to was myself," Gvozden said after the loss to the reigning national champion Orange. "I think for the first time in nearly two years, I played really inspired tonight and I think I found my niche again. That's something I've got to build on."
Gvozden, a Severna Park native and graduate, who surrendered three goals in eight minutes to the Pride before being pulled by coach Dave Pietramala, had to compete with Burke and freshman Pierce Bassett for the right to start Saturday night. It wasn't the kind of psychologically relaxing week you'd want prior to one of the biggest games on the Blue Jays' schedule.
"It was pretty mentally tough and rightfully so," Gvozden said. "I don't think my play was anything to write home about earlier in the season."
Pietramala, who has leaned on Gvozden for the past three seasons, was pleased with Gvozden's display.
"I expect to see more of that as we move forward," Pietramala said. "That's been the expectation all the time. That's why we wound up where we were going into this game. I give Michael a lot of credit. He answered the bell. I hope that he sees the confidence that we still have in him and the loyalty we have shown to him, and I hope he'll continue to play that way because it's going to be important for us as we move forward that he do just that."
Other notes:
*On the opposite end of the spectrum, Pietramala was visibly perturbed by the team's 6-of-20 showing in face-offs. Senior Michael Powers, who entered the game winning 55.4 percent (41 of 74) of his face-offs, won just 33.3 percent (4 of 12). Junior Matt Dolente, who had won 50.8 percent (32 of 63), was even worse at 25 percent (2 of 8). What bothered Pietramala even more was that – by his estimation – Johns Hopkins committed "no less" than five procedural violations, while Syracuse committed no more than three. Estimated that JH committed no less than five procedural violations on face-offs and that the Orange had no more than three similar violations. "We have to be more disciplined than that because you've got to give yourself at least a chance to compete for a loose ball," he said. "You've got to make your opponent earn it. We're at a point right now where we're not making them earn it. … Six of 20 is an unacceptable percentage at this level. So we will address that first thing on Monday."
*Blue Jays senior midfielder Michael Kimmel did not register a single point Saturday night, snapping a streak of 28 consecutive games with either a goal or an assist – which had been the fourth-longest active streak in the nation and longest by a midfielder. Kimmel was hounded by Syracuse junior long-stick midfielder Joel White, who caught some flak earlier in the season for allowing Virginia junior midfielder Rhamel Bratton to score four goals in the Cavaliers' 11-10 win on March 7. "He's been catching a little heat from his match-up against Virginia," junior goalkeeper John Galloway said of his teammate. "That's a credit to Joel. He is, I think, the best long-stick midfielder in the country."
*Speaking of White, he scored his first goal of the season when he collected a loose ball off of a face-off, carried it into the offensive zone, and took a shot from the left wing when no Blue Jays defender tried to cut him off. The goal gave the Orange a 10-7 lead with 2:38 left in regulation, but had White waited a little longer, he might never have gotten a shot off because Syracuse coach John Desko wanted to call a timeout. "I couldn't get to the official quick enough," Desko said. "I thought he was going to pull it out, and then I saw him wind up and I was really thinking about calling a timeout. We had talked to them in the huddle – more with the offense – and said, 'We don't need any more points. There's enough time here that we want them to chase us.' We had two timeouts left, and if we got in trouble, we'd take a timeout. So I think at that point, it was more important time for us to take time off the clock than it was to get another goal. But after it went in, it was certainly comforting that we had a three-goal lead at that point instead of the two-goal lead."