Johns Hopkins' 16-15 upset of No. 2 seed Syracuse in Sunday's NCAA Division I tournament quarterfinal at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium had several heroes, from attackmen Wells and Shack Stanwick (four goals and two assists each) to fifth-year senior goalkeeper Eric Schneider (game-high 15 saves), to offensive coordinator Bobby Benson (architect of offense that scored second-most goals against Orange).
But don't overlook the contribution of freshman faceoff specialist Hunter Moreland. The White Hall resident and Boys' Latin graduate won just 6 of 20 draws, but his last one was the most important.
With the Blue Jays (11-6) clinging to a one-goal lead with 23 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Moreland outdueled Syracuse sophomore Ben Williams, who won 22 of 34 faceoffs and had a game-high 10 ground balls.
"I had the clamp, and once you get the clamp, they're good at getting in your body," Williams said. "I thought I pulled the ball, and it just fell out of my stick. So it was just a good play by him."
Moreland's play allowed Johns Hopkins to run out the final seconds of the game, but it was a long, torturous wait.
"I was like, 'Just keep it on that side of the field,'" senior long-stick midfielder Michael Pellegrino said. "I was just hanging back, and as soon as [Moreland] got it forward, I just hung back, and I was just like, 'Withstand, withstand, withstand.' I was going to ballhawk anything that tried to come back upfield. I saw [the clock] go [to] 20 and then I saw it go [to] 10 and then 5 and then I just ran straight to Eric. It was a great feeling."
Said coach Dave Pietramala: "Last faceoff for me, I don't know that I was even looking at the ball. I was looking at the clock, just asking the clock to tick."
Circling back to "Three Things to Watch" …
1) Defense. The Orange (13-3) exceeded their season average of 14.8 goals, but seven of those tallies occurred in the fourth quarter when they were in a deep hole against the Blue Jays. Syracuse was limited to a single goal in the third quarter when Johns Hopkins turned a 7-6 halftime deficit into an 11-8 lead. The defense was anchored by Schneider, who made nine saves in the first half and has turned aside 28 shots in two meetings with Syracuse.
"They're a great opponent and at any time, their first six and even their second-line midfield can sling the ball," said Schneider, who has made 29 stops in two NCAA tournament games. "It definitely makes you focus a little more. Luckily, my defense gave me shots early on that I felt that I could see, and it allowed me to get into a little bit of a rhythm. I just tried to carry that on throughout the game and the next-play mentality. We knew they were going to score goals, and they're very talented obviously. So it was just not getting down on ourselves if they put a couple in."
2) Offense. In addition to the Stanwick brothers, junior attackman Ryan Brown (Calvert Hall) posted two goals and two assists, and junior midfielder Holden Cattoni scored twice. The Blue Jays ran their offense to perfection, with the Stanwicks finding open teammates off screens and the midfielders dodging from inverts behind the cage. Orange coach John Desko said Johns Hopkins didn't run anything different from what they showed in recent contests, but Pietramala said the offense got the Syracuse defense to move and open gaps in its schemes.
"We just felt like if we could get them moving, we would be able to find the open guy," Pietramala said. "The more we could force them to rotate and the longer we could force them to play defense, we would have better opportunities later in the possessions than we would earlier. One of the important things was not to just come down and take the first available shot. But it was to play offense, be aggressive, not stall, and just force them to move as much as we can. And as the possession unfolded a little bit longer, we felt like we could get good looks."
3) Loose balls. The Blue Jays fared poorly in faceoffs (winning 12 of 34) and ground balls (28 to the Orange's 34). But Syracuse committed 12 turnovers to Johns Hopkins' six, including eight in the second half and five in the fourth quarter. Orange coach John Desko noted that the Blue Jays caused five turnovers.
"Probably a couple more than what you would like to get in a game like this," Desko said. "Disappointing. In a game like this when you know it's going to be tight, you have to limit those turnovers, and obviously, they came to play a little bit today."