A new day for the Big Ten Conference on Saturday also became a new beginning for the Johns Hopkins lacrosse team.
In the first Big Ten men's lacrosse game, the No. 20 Blue Jays got a game-high four goals from junior Ryan Brown and overcame a fourth-quarter deficit by scoring the game's final three goals in a 9-7 win over visiting Rutgers.
After suffering through heart-wrenching losses to nationally ranked North Carolina, Princeton, Syracuse and Virginia, Hopkins at long last came out on top in a nail-biter.
And it couldn't have come at a more opportune time.
"It's kind of like a fresh start and a new season," Brown said. "We've always only had one vehicle to get to the playoffs, and this year we're lucky enough to have two [with the conference berth]."
For coach Dave Pietramala, the difference from prior setbacks was attention to detail.
"We've been a team whose margin of error has been very slight," Pietramala said. "Today, we cut down on some of those mistakes – something we've been unable to do against Virginia … against Princeton. We were there with Syracuse, but we were unable to finish the game. We finished the game today."
That scenario seemed unlikely at times, particularly for must of the second half, when the Blue Jays (4-5, 1-0 conference) went 24:33 without a goal.
Rutgers (4-7, 0-1), meanwhile, scored four straight goals to turn a 6-3 deficit into a 7-6 lead on freshman Jules Heningurg's second goal of the game with 1:10 left in the third.
In the fourth quarter, however, Hopkins' defense took command, forcing turnovers on six of Rutgers' eight possessions and holding the Scarlett Knights scoreless for the final 16:10.
"We wanted to have a one-goal game going into the fourth quarter, and we did," Rutgers coach Brian Brecht said. "Give Hopkins a lot of credit. We probably needed one possession in that first five minutes of the fourth quarter to maybe calm us down and settle in, and we didn't have that. They took advantage of some mishaps on our end and executed."
Tied at 7 following a goal by Holden Cattoni early in the fourth, Hopkins took the lead for good when Brown fired a bullet from 12-yards out on the left side off a feed from Connor Reed with 7:12 left.
The Blue Jays then cemented the win when Wells Stanwick, who earlier in the game recorded his 100th career assist, double-clutched and beat Rutgers goalie Kris Alleyne to his left with 1:25 to play.
"We got stops at the end of the game when we needed them. At the end of the day, this might not be our prettiest victory, but I've got to tell you – on a lot of fronts, it's one of the more important ones," Pietramala said. "It puts us at 1-0 in conference play. For us, given some of the opportunities we've squandered … it makes it even more important. "
The game marked the culmination of nearly two years of planning for Hopkins, which announced in 2013 it would join the Big Ten as an affiliate after competing as an independent since 1883.
"The fact that it's finally here this season, and that we were lucky enough to play the first game and get the first win ever – that's something special," Stanwick said. "That will be cemented in there forever."