Chris Boland will not miss the remainder of the regular season after suffering what appeared to be a shoulder injury in No. 4 Johns Hopkins' 12-6 victory over Towson on Friday night.
Coach Dave Pietramala declined to elaborate on the senior attackman's injury and said a timetable for his return was yet to be determined, but emphasized that doctors had concluded that Boland, a Jessup native and Boys' Latin graduate, should be able to return to the lineup this spring.
"Chris is a little banged up, but it's not a season-ending injury," Pietramala said Monday morning. "So we're happy to hear that, and he will be back."
Boland's absence saps the Blue Jays offense of its most experienced leader, who scored a game-high four goals in the win against Towson and led the team in points (54) last season.
Freshman Wells Stanwick is expected to join junior Zach Palmer and sophomore Brandon Benn as starters in Tuesday night's contest against No. 16 Delaware, but Pietramala said sophomore Kevin Interlicchio and junior John Kaestner could also see some minutes on attack.
"From the start of the fall, we've kind of maintained a very consistent rotation, meaning that in practices and full scrimmages, we've constantly rotated attackmen through – including others than just Benn and Stanwick," Pietramala said. "Kevin Interlicchio saw significant time in the scrimmages and so did John Kaestner. So as coaches, we've really tried to prepare for any and all scenarios. … We've had different combinations. It's been Palmer-Boland-Benn, Palmer-Boland-Stanwick, Stanwick-Benn-Palmer, Stanwick-Benn-Boland, putting those guys in different positions so that they all get comfortable. We've played Kevin Interlicchio with the first group on occasion. When you do that stuff, you hope that you've prepared your guys to deal with a situation where a guys go down."