Last Week...
In Baltimore at Homewood Field...
It's Déjà Vu all over again for Navy...
Miss Venus Lee reports...
Having witnessed Navy draw over 26,000 fans to back-to-back nationally televised lacrosse games in Annapolis, I presumed that this game might present a difficult ticket, and arrived an hour early. I spent much of that time soaking up the rich history of Homewood Field.

My mind flashed back to the glorious Hopkins' teams of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when Hopkins won the majority of its lacrosse championships that its fans constantly talk about.

I could almost see the ancient Blue Jays attacking their opponents' goal relentlessly, spurred by the innovative Ron Abercrombie, who led his team to three consecutive championships (1898-1900) with his invention of the short stick, which revolutionized scoring. Or Will Hudgins, the prolific attacker of the 1906 champion, who became Hopkins' first true goal-making machine. Then my mind jumped forward to the Depression Era, when Blue Jay attacker Don Kelly, eleven times a letterman, set scoring records which would not be broken for many years, all the while leading his team to three more consecutive championships. From there, I took a mental leap to the storied years of the late '60's and early '70's when players like Joe Cowan redefined the offensive concepts of the game. Now, it was on to the great teams of the '80's and '90's, where Brian Wood dominated defenses with his graceful moves just as Terry Riordan would later break all scoring records with his raw, aggressive power. Yes, remembered also were the 15-9 thrashing of Maryland in the 1979 championship, the dramatic 13-10 conclusion of the 1983 season, and the famous 1989 13-12 classic against Syracuse. All those great champions, all that scoring--it all began right here at Homewood Field. The cheering with each goal rose from the field like venerable ghosts of the past. Hopkins scores. Hopkins scores! Hopkins scores again!

Such legacy!

And now, new champions are emerging from the storied Homewood tradition--ones which future lacrosse chronicleers are certain to memorialize: the great passing teams of the early 21st Century.

The dramatic radio broadcasts of games from earlier this season now flooded my consciousness. "It's Huntley, to Byrne, to LeSueur, and back to Huntley, now on to Byrne. What terrific passing! And now, its LeSueur to Byrne to Huntley. He holds it. Then he passes again! What a game! The clock has just run out! Hopkins defeats North Carolina by a score of 7-5. What great action!"

Saturday's game was still over 45 minutes from beginning. I now realized there were no difficult tickets. The only fans I saw were all wearing Navy uniforms, refugees, no doubt, from Navy's well-attended annual spring football intra-squad scrimmage in Annapolis. There would be no big crowd for this game. But, somehow, the mental picture of this year's Hopkins team would not leave my head. All that passing made me dizzy. I drifted off to sleep.

I dreamed I was the Swami.

I was delivered to the game in a stretch limousine, bespectacled in designer sunglasses, with three cheerleaderettes in tow and a movie starlet for elbow jewelry. I signed many autographs, got bored when the game played out precisely to my expectations, cursed the long concession lines at Homewood Field, made disparaging remarks about Blue Jay fans at every instance, criticized any and all broadcasters present, and referred to myself as an ultra-liberal, while, at the same time, calling every female in the stadium either a "babe" or a "chick." When I departed, I was applauded by an entirely male audience ostensibly because I was the Swami. But, secretly, I knew the accolades were envious expressions of their repression at the hands of their wives--no doubt common sense women who act their age and expect their husbands to do the same. Then, just as those final realistic thoughts began to invade my dream, I awoke with a start.

Just kidding. Of course, that character bears no resemblance to the real Swami.

The real Swami, confidant of a Navy win, and whose back is still too aggravated to sit in the bleacher type seats that Homewood Field features, stayed home to be able to review the TV broadcast. "Besides," said the Swami, "the refs can't give this game to Hopkins two years in a row."

Whoops.

Not a minute into the game, Kyle Harrison scored unassisted for Hopkins. His right-handed jumper landed high into Navy's net.  It is Harrison's bread and butter shot, and one which Navy had found difficult to defend for as long as Harrison has been a Blue Jay.

Several minutes later Matt Rewkowski scored on a feed from Peter LeSueur. It was a low shovel shot that Navy goalie Matt Russell seemed to have a bead on, but somehow trickled under his stick and literally dribbled into the goal, stopping just behind its plane.

When was the last 12-8 score in a Navy-Hopkins game? They are usually either blow-outs or thrillers. This one had all the unfortunate earmarks of a disaster for Navy. Absent some extremely poor shot selection by the Blue Jay offense, the score could well be 4-0. Navy needed to buckle down.

Hopkins was dominating possession, winning all but one faceoff in the first quarter. The Blue Jays were eating up the clock and had Navy's defense on its heels.

But on Navy's first real possession of the game, fully six minutes after its start, Graham Gill easily penetrated Hopkins' defense and scored with an overhand shot from the right side close in. This was a little too easy. Hopkins was late with a slide and paid the price. Worse, Hopkins had to work for six minutes for two goals against Navy's stubborn defense. The Mids' first tally concluded a possession of less than a minute.

As the game settled down, Hopkins became increasingly frustrated by Navy's bruising defense. Blue Jay shooters were pummeled when they weren't boxed out.

Midshipman Billy Looney tied the game at 3:43.

But Navy was still having problems in the faceoff circle. Tommy Wallin won Navy's first faceoff at 3:43. Fifty seconds later William Wallace scored to put the MIds up, 3-2. The game's tone had been set. Navy's defense had bottled up the vaunted Hopkins attack almost completely--it would manage only a single goal on the day. In the meantime, the Hopkins defenders looked sluggish. Every single Navy offensive starter would score--as well as several from its bench.

Navy's quick-strike offense was proving dangerous, and Hopkins' game plan to simply hold the ball was probably a wise one. The Blue Jays took a total of only 16 shots in the final three quarters of the contest--a little more than half their average for nine previous games.

Goals by Matt Rewkowski and Kyle Harrison (another right handed jumper) would give the Blue Jays a 5-3 halftime lead.

Joe Malo struck first for Hopkins in the second half with his sixth goal of the season. It was now 6-3.

But a little more than a minute later, Navy's Jon Birsner scored after beating his defender badly. Then it was Billy Looney again on a beautiful feed from Ben Horn. One minute later Tommy Wallin bounced one into Hopkins' net from outside. Shades of 2004--Navy was on a four goal run.

Navy's faceoff problems had seemingly disappeared as mysteriously as they had developed. Chris Pieczonka won the ensuing faceoff and, five seconds later, Navy had tied the game. It was a straight-to-the-net play off a feed to Ben Horn from Pieczonka. The Hopkins defense was simply not set.

Kyle Harrison took Hopkins up a goal, tying the game at 7-7, shortly into the fourth quarter. But Nick Mirabito gave Navy yet another lead when he converted a feed from Jon Birsner right in front of the goal. Birsner threw off two separate Hopkins defenders when he looked left and fed right.

Hopkins' attack was becoming increasingly frustrated. Navy was not letting them near its goal. Navy now had a one goal lead with time running out, and Hopkins could not shut down any one particular scorer for the Mids. So far, the eight Navy goals came from eight different players. Things were looking very grim for several different winning streaks that had Hopkins' fans rightfully gloating.

By now it was obvious to the Hopkins coaching staff that Navy had taken just about every Hopkins offensive player but Kyle Harrison out of the game. A timeout was called with just 47 seconds remaining. Thirteen seconds later, Harrison scored to tie the game and force overtime.

Navy won the overtime draw and promptly took the ball to the Hopkins end, where it ended up with Jon Birsner behind the goal line extended to right of the net. Birsner spotted an open Steve Looney on the right wing, inexplicably uncovered. Birsner's pass, however, was behind Looney, who had to turn to catch it. By the time he was ready to shoot, a Hopkins defender was on him, tipping his stick slightly. Looney's shot sailed over the goal, high by a foot and out of bounds.

Then, fate intervened on the side of the Blue Jays for the second overtime year in a row. The game officials, Steve Ruppel, Mark Goldsmith, and Hans Wittelsburger, at first made no possession call. But, as everyone in the stadium saw, and the TV replay showed, Navy's Graham Gill was clearly closer to the ball at the time it went out of bounds--closer by a good four yards.

Official Steve Ruppel was closest to the play. He looked to the other two officials for help. Wittelsburger pointed toward Navy, Goldsmith to Hopkins. The ball was awarded to Hopkins, which scored to end the game seconds later.

Hopkins fans were ecstatic. But the Blue Jay coaching staff probably was not. Navy had shut down the entire Hopkins offense, save a single player, and the Mids had shown an ability to score in seconds.

And, as with its victory last year, Hopkins needed help from above.

Final Score: Kyle Harrison 5, Johns Hopkins 4, Navy 8 (OT).


The Swami reviews the game coverage...
A good broadcast by the Channel 2-ESPNU TV crew...well, almost...
The Hopkins Symphonette goes Prime Time...
Missing from the broadcast booth last Saturday was Quint Kessenich. He was on assignment for ESPN at West Point, where he provided the color commentary for the Duke-Army contest. To its credit, Channel 2 did not attempt to replace him--perhaps because, in the recent past, Kessenich's replacements have encountered little success. It's difficult to fault the producer in this case. When you have another assignment, you have to go.

So the viewing audience was left in the hands of veteran Channel 2 sportscasters Scott Garceau and Keith Mills. The both did a pretty good job. What came out in this game is that three people in the booth is probably one too many. Kessenich's "big picture" game analysis was missed, for he gives an overall perspective that is sorely missing from the color commentary of most of his competition.

Garceau is an accomplished announcer. A native of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, he was raised with a hockey stick and football. Garceau is the Baltimore Ravens primary radio announcer, so he also knows how to call a game. In the past three years, Garceau has mastered the nuances of lacrosse and calls the game with noticeably more confidence than he did when these broadcasts first began regularly in 1998.

Mills is a local product, who spends a lot of time covering the Baltimore sports scene. He knows just about everyone, down to the guy who buffs the floors before the Dunbar High School basketball games. Sometimes he seems to know all their relatives too.

But, last Saturday, these guys were focused on the game. There was little trivia talk and virtually no exploration of the blood lines of various Baltimore sports personalities. That's an improvement from earlier broadcasts, although this crew has had a series of relapses in that department on any number of occasions. Maybe now that the broadcast is being carried nationally by ESPNU, someone has told them that Joe Sixpack in Colorado doesn't really care that Hopkins' badminton coach's wife is second cousin to a local high school lacrosse player.

The prime problem with this production this season has been poor direction. While that is improving, CSTV is busy eating ESPN's lunch in production quality.

The first game of the 2005 season reviewed by the Swami saw the Channel 2 crew blow 14 of 24 face-offs, while the cameras were focused on the crowd, or on a player who had just scored and was receiving congratulations from his teammates on the bench. In that game, even the most critical face-off of the contest, an overtime draw that decided the final possession of the match, was completely missed. That's unforgiveable.

Channel 2 seems to be catching all the face-offs now, although they still don't have the field camera positioned properly for the draws. The general rule for face-off shots is that if you can't see the ball clearly, the camera is not shooting close enough. Fans want to see both players framed in the center, full to the screen, not a view of the face-off from the top of the broadcast booth. Admittedly, many fields, like Homewood, are not constructed ideally for television coverage, but Channel 2 has shown several face-offs from the proper angle. So, if they can do it once, they can do it more often.

Huddle coverage has been another problem. Often, in the past, Channel 2 has covered the huddle of the team which did not call the time out. So, while the team that did call the time out is planning its strategy, viewers were stuck with remarks from the opponents' coaching staff like, "if they do this, let's do that." Not very enlightening.

This past weekend, the huddle coverage was almost exclusively of Navy's gathering. That's because Hopkins' coach Dave Pietramala has reportedly banned audio coverage of his sideline strategy sessions. Nothing wrong with that. The idea of coaches letting cameras into their inner sanctum will die as soon as networks pick up the game anyway. So fans have to look at this as a short-lived luxury at the moment.

The problem with Channel 2's huddle coverage last weekend was, again, direction. While the boom operator was struggling to get the sound from the Navy coaches, the broadcast was still picking up competing sideline noises.

Many fans may notice that during television broadcasts of athletic events there is frequently a person on the sidelines holding what looks like a clear plastic satellite dish. This is basically a parabolic microphone that can be aimed to pick up crowd and field noise from a distance to give the production a more realistic audio backdrop. This microphone should be turned off while the boom operator hangs his boom mike over the huddle. But, last Saturday, the sideline parabolic was not only turned up, but it was aimed during the time outs, for the most part, at the Hopkins band. So Richie Meade's instructions to the Midshipmen could only be discerned during the short pauses between stanzas of whatever the band was playing. While the Hopkins' Symphonette may be gratified for the publicity, its exposure has little to do with the mission of the broadcast.

The announcers had a good day, even if Kessenich was missing. The Swami does not buy the criticism that announcers should not be biased. Most announcers, including some of the best play-by-play callers in baseball, like to give the home team a little preference. Hey, that's the way the game goes. But this broadcast team is pretty fair, all things considered. The Swami agrees with a few emailers that Keith Mills may have been a little over the top when he declared Hopkins' win "inevitable"--let's face facts, it was a tainted win, and far from inevitable. But that's still OK. If these guys can do what they did last week and whip the production and direction into shape, they will be headed in the right direction.

The mission of any sports broadcast is simple: to explain, analyze, and elucidate the action on the field. It has nothing to do with talk of other sports, relatives, interviews with old timers, name-dropping, or any of the many other things that often accompany local sports productions.

Sometimes Channel 2 performs up to this mission statement. Sometimes it does not. Channel 2 needs to stick to the mission statement, review its broadcast against the mission statement on tape after the game is over ("can we see that face-off a little more closely the next time?"), and do what it can to make the broadcast better. Otherwise it will just be a couple of guys talking in the booth with a game going on in the background--a sad fate to which too many of its broadcasts have succumbed in the past.
swami@laxswami.com


Yeowwww!!!
A bad cell phone connection sends Miss Ryan into No Man's Land...
Her first visit to Baltimore, and who does she meet?...

Swami: C. C., you're breaking up. I think we have a bad connection...

Miss Ryan: I can't hear you.

Swami: I said meet me at Hooligan's (the connection goes dead) Restaurant...

Miss Bimbette: Oh Swami, maybe she thought you said to meet you at the Navy Lax Hooligan's tailgate party.

Swami: Nah. Who could possibly think something that bad about the Swami?

Since the Swami was diligently covering the actual game, and I was in the area anyway, I went to the Hopkins-Navy game in search of a story on the important part of the game: the fans. But because Hopkins fans are boring, and they're the home team anyway, Navy fans sounded like a good idea.

I got there an hour before the game, and as I was driving (lost) through the campus, I saw flocks of fans headed toward, I presumed, the stadium. Tailgates were rampant in parking lots strewn between leafy trees and red brick buildings. One tailgate was attended by a group of guys in bright neon green t-shirts, and I thought, “Huh, kinda tacky.” Eventually, I found a spot and hiked to the stadium. I thought it would be packed, but there were only a few scattered fans.

The first few Navy fans I talked to, they noticed my nifty laxswami.com windbreaker from the Swami himself. They started asking me who he was. It's then that I realized just how famous this Swami guy is.

I told them I had no idea, which is absolutely the truth, and then they started telling me their own theories and the various methods they have to try to figure it out. One Navy dad told me he had the Swami figured out, no doubt about it. So watch out, Swami, these Navy fans are tricky...

Then I climbed the bleachers in the “FONL” section – where a couple hundred fans in the group Friends of Navy Lacrosse sat. This group of mostly players’ families and families of alumni players travels to every game, and members come from as far away as California and New York. The group's organizer, goalie Matt Russell’s dad, calls these fans the “cerebral” lacrosse fans. In other words, they know their stuff about lacrosse but aren't quite as crazy as the students.

They're not crazy, but there are the overenthusiastic ones. Of course, there are a few of those typical screaming moms, and some dads that sound like they're going to storm the field and punch the ref as they speech. For the most part, it's a normal fan section – quiet during play, yelling and on their feet at every goal.

But if you sit in this section long enough, you'll learn the little things about Navy lacrosse that you might not have known before. The alumni parents come to the games to see something familiar and to feel closer to their sons deployed in foreign places like Afghanistan and Iraq. A player on the team hurt his leg not in a game or training, but because he was running home after class to make 12:00 Academy curfew. Steve and Billy Looney are each scoring a goal in the last game their older brother will watch them in before he leaves for Korea the next week.

Certain student fans in the parking lot have been “hydrating” since 8 a.m.

And those are the fans in the crazy Navy student section. Hopkins allowed them only one section of bleachers, which is probably a good thing, because that one section was enough to completely drown out the Hopkins fans. The Navy students start flat-out yelling before the game, hyping up the parents section and, hopefully, their team. They scream “defense” or the even more annoying “Ahhhhhhh” when Hopkins offense is setting up. They scream at the away mascot and the Hopkins fans as they walk by; they are feeling quite at home, in my opinion.

I find out what the ugly fluorescent shirts are for. A Navy football player explains to me that me that students have the shirts, which say “Proud to be a Navy lax hooligan” (or something very similar), to snub the UNC fans that called them hooligans on the laxpower.com forum. I guess these Navy fans are way too crazy for those Tar Heels.

I feel kinda bad for these fans; for all the yelling they do, they didn't get anything accomplished. Here's a consolation prize: If the game was about who had the loudest, most enthusiastic fans, it would have been a Navy victory, for sure.
ccryan@laxswami.com


In New York at West Point...
Waiting for thunder and lightning...
Jake Hyde reports...
I had seen Army three times in person (Cornell, at Rutgers, and Bucknell) and against Navy on television, but isolated here in the North I had not seen Duke. Thus, when the Swami asked me to cover the Army-Duke game I was intrigued.

First, a word on the ominous weather forecast for the Hudson Valley. The heavy rain, thunder, and lightning predicted for the game never materialized, though the front moved in later, just in time to shorten the Army Black vs. Gold football scrimmage that followed the lacrosse game. Fans in the stands faced only occasional drizzles until the lacrosse game ended. Nevertheless, the forecast did affect the game--not the outcome, but the experience of attending.

No doubt the respectable crowd of 3,737 was depressed by the forecast. Then, Army officials--in an intended act of compassion--reversed their earlier announced intention to close the west side of Michie Stadium with its protective overhang. Thus, instead of being concentrated together making noise in the east stands behind the two teams' benches, fans were scattered through cavernous Michie. The Army Rabble Rousers Band was off by itself, and the forlorn Army cheerleaders wandered about looking for any collection of Army fans to motivate. Acoustically, it didn't sound like 3,700 plus, even when the game was still in contention.

Duke is having a storybook of a season that has been gaining strength and momentum, culminating in its17-2 annihilation of (then #3) Virginia. Through thirteen games, the Blue Devils were averaging 13.1 goals per game while surrendering only 6.15 goals per game. The Duke attack of Matt Danowski, Dan Flannery, and freshman Zack Greer had scored a ridiculous ninety-five goals (Greer led the nation with forty-two), and 146 points. Four Duke middies had at least ten goals. Goalie Aaron Fenton sported a .648 save percentage and a 5.87 goals against average. I was eager to see this juggernaut.

The Black Knights' campaign has seemed to unravel somewhat recently. Army started the season with illness and injuries afflicting multiple offensive midfielders. Only a rejuvenated defense kept them in games while the offense was healing.

Army surrendered an average of 10.9 goals per game in 2004, but through twelve games before Duke, that had been cut to 7.44 goals per game. In wins over #6 Cornell (11-9), #14 Rutgers (8-6), and #13 Bucknell (7-6) Army played as good team defense as I saw in the first half of the season. With this strong D, Army reeled off nine straight wins after an opening 9-4 loss to Syracuse in the Carrier Dome.

Army's offense lay in the hands of attackmen John Walker (25 goals, 27 assists) and Jim Wagner (35 goals, 7 assists). In Army's 9-12 loss to Navy, however, some serious chinks appeared in the Army defense, especially in unsettled and transition situations. Then a three-win Holy Cross team put up ten goals on the cadets in Army's surprisingly close 11-10 double overtime win on Tuesday night. Furthermore, in doing my pre-game research on Friday, I noticed two changes to the projected starters in Army's published Game Notes.

Junior defenseman Matt Bowerman and junior midfielder Mike Obringer were missing. So, once inside Michie, I inquired among the Army fans and discovered that both went down in the first quarter against Holy Cross and were lost for the remainder of the season. While I had thought that Obringer was Army's most effective all around middie in the games I saw, I was especially interested in the impact of Bowerman's injury. Originally a football recruit, Bowerman was Army's most physical defender. His replacement, junior Andy Yakulis, was part of the regular four-man close-D rotation in the all games I had seen, but he brings different strengths. He has a slicker stick than Bowerman, but does not provide the same physical presence. So the question was how would Army's reeling defense deal with Duke's many offensive options?

After a nice ceremony honoring Army's fifteen graduating seniors and their parents, the game got underway. It was a contest of two very different halves. Despite its defensive problems, Army played well in the first half to trail only 8-6. The box score showed what we saw in Michie--that Army led in face-offs won (10 to 6), ground balls (18 to 11), and saves (6 to 2) and trailed in shots only 18-15. However, Duke's defense and riding were causing too many Army turnovers (13 to Duke's 7) and giving the Duke offense too many opportunities. In the second half, Duke led in shots 27 to 17, ground balls 23 to 15, and continued to commit many fewer turnovers (8 to 14). The second half score was 11-3. All year, Army had used defensive depth to keep games close. Against Duke, they relied on only three close defensemen and, after senior long pole middie E.J. Behrendt went down in the first half, only one LSM to go with their five man short stick D-mid rotation. Army tried to play the same aggressive defense their depth had allowed them to use all year, but after the intermission, Duke simply scorched Army's obviously tiring and confused defense.

But all that was in the future at the opening face-off. Walker opened the scoring just a minute and a half into the game on a startling quick dodge and energized the Army fans. Less than a minute later, Duke answered. Danowski, who was stationed below goal line extended to the left of freshman goalie Adam Fullerton, fired a feed to Flannery on the crease that appeared to bounce off his body--or the shaft of his stick--and dribble into the goal. A little over three minutes after that, senior middie Ryan Marshall beat his defender from up top to put Duke ahead for good. At 8:05, Duke called a time-out. My immediate thought was that Pressler or Alberici had seen something in the Army defensive scheme. Twenty-three seconds after play resumed, junior middie Matt Zash fed line-mate Kyle Dowd underneath the defense for a two-goal lead. Duke players would wander around under the Army defense all day without paying a price. I could only wonder if that would have been true had the physical Bowerman had been available.

By this point, Duke was playing with poise and confidence, and a shiver of apprehension went through the sparse group of Army parents and fans huddled behind the cadet's bench. Defensively, Duke was denying Wagner his most effective shooting spots. They seemed to be willing to let him carry the ball as long as he wasn't in any position to shoot. They quickly doubled Walker when he had the ball. They played very aggressively, pressing out hard on freshman attackman Matt Scheel and Army's middies, and causing several turnovers.

Army inverted its middies to try to get some opportunities for Wagner and Walker. About a minute after Zash scored, Army's second middie line ran a nice two-man play behind the goal. Senior middie Chris Couch beat his defender from X to Fenton's left crease, drew the Duke D, and then quickly reversed the ball to senior line-mate Brian Green who slipped around the other side of the goal to score. Score 3-2 Duke, and the Army fans came to life. But any momentum Green's goal may have given the cadets was squelched six seconds later when Zash won the face-off cleanly, then initiated a classic four-on-three break with Flannery feeding Danowski.

For the rest of the quarter, Army had difficulty sustaining possessions, but Duke was unable to convert its opportunities. Was this handwriting on the wall?

But Army wasn't beaten yet. The second quarter featured eight goals and was worth the price of admission by itself. Less than two minutes into the quarter, Scheel fed Walker up top who fired a low, screened rocket that beat Fenton.

Minutes later, Danowski converted a feed from Flannery on EMO to restore Duke's two-goal lead. Then, at 9:17, inverted senior middie Chris Larsen found sophomore line-mate Justin Bokmeyer to bring Army within one goal again. Four minutes later, Duke won a push call in a sideline loose ball scramble and quickly capitalized when Flannery found a cutting junior middie Bret Thompson to put Duke back up by two. Fourteen seconds later, Walker fed junior middie Jon Burton for his second goal of the year, but under a minute after that Duke drew another sideline loose ball push call and scored moments later when sophomore middie Peter Lamade found Flannery loose inside the Army defense. Forty seconds later, Walker speed dodged from the wing to Fenton's right to draw Army within one yet again. Army was still in the game but was giving up too many opportunities on turnovers and loose ball possession fouls. Another of these at 1:30 gave Duke a chance for the last shot and Danowski ripped a high-to-high 20-yarder to Fullerton's lefty stick side that seemed to draw some of the energy from the Army contingent.

Still, it was only 8-6 Duke at the half, and if Army could continue to control ground balls and face-offs and limit the turnovers, the game seemed within reach. The good news was that the Army D had held Zack Greer to zero shots, which somewhat offset Duke's success in taking Wagner out of Army's offense.

Duke's talent advantage became immediately apparent in the second half. Perhaps coach Emmer thought goalie Fullerton should have had the Danowski shot that closed out the first half. One way or another, he switched to senior co-captain Matt Darak who is playing with a broken thumb (Fullerton still came in for all MDDs as he has all year). Duke tested Darak right away as Zash fed Flannery down low less than a minute into the quarter. Walker, who is often on the wing on face-offs, was called for a push on the ensuing draw. Army killed the penalty, but Danowski fed Flannery for a goal shortly after it expired. The officials caught Army in another loose ball push on the next face-off and Thompson dodged to the goal successfully after a beautiful set-up pass from Danowski. Three goals in less than three minutes, and Duke was suddenly up by five. But Army's pain did not end there.

Two minutes later, Darak made a great stop only to have his outlet pass snatched by Flannery standing on the crease--12-6 Duke. With just under seven minutes to go, Danowski dodged to the goal to extend the Duke lead to seven goals. Walker then staged an Army mini-run with two more low, screened screamers from up top, the second on an EMO feed from Scheel. The third quarter ended 13-8 and some small Army hope.

Duke then nailed the lid on the Army coffin with six unanswered goals. Army seemed tired and confused. First, Army won the face-off to start the quarter, but a middie coming on from the box failed to advance the ball into the offensive zone. Duke sophomore long stick Casey Carroll stayed on the field and found Danowski just eight seconds later. At ten minutes, Zash brought the ball down on a four-on-three break and two confused Army defenders took point, leaving Danowski wide open for Duke's fifteenth goal. A minute-and-a-half later, Darak saved a big shot from Thompson only to have the rebound go directly to Flannery who put it away. Brad Ross then took the face-off cleanly and, as the Duke attack dropped into a flat break formation, went straight to the goal and scored. Two goals in six seconds and the score was 17-8. As if they needed it, Duke got an EMO opportunity that gave Greer his only shot, and goal, of the day on a feed from Danowski. With 3:38 to go, freshman middie Ben Koesterer scored unassisted. Duke 19-8.

At about that point, Emmer threw in the towel, inserted his third goalie, junior Ed Clarke, and some career reserve seniors to the end of the game. This yielded a nice consolation goal by 5' 2" attackman Brant Germann on an assist from Matt Ellement, whose play for four years has been limited to clearing middie. Final score: Duke 19, Army 9.

Some overall observations: Against both Virginia and Army, Duke lost the face-off battle. Against Army, at least, this statistic is misleading as Duke did win and exploit the decisive face-offs that prevented Army from ever generating momentum for a run. Further, in several other cases, Duke riding and defensive pressure regained possession before Army could take advantage of a face-off win. All the publicity has been about Duke's offense and its huge stars--and they suitably impressed me, but perhaps even more remarkable was the Blue Devil defense. Their aggressive pressure disrupted the Army offense all day. The Duke defense never did really stop Walker, but was able to eliminate Wagner from the offense and kept everybody else off balance. In the second half, Duke had the ball so much that even Walker was neutralized. Judging by this performance, Duke is by far the most talented team I have seen this year. I would not want to face the Blue Devils at home or on a neutral field, even if I were Johns Hopkins. I'll be surprised if they lose again. And they are so young!

Army, on the other hand, is staggering. Its defense is in disarray, having surrendered thirty goals in its last two games. Without Bowerman the team doesn't seem able to protect the middle of its defense. Can the Knights go with just three close defensemen and one LSM in the Patriot League Tournament? Even if they should defeat Bucknell on Friday--a rather large IF--they may well be exhausted for the Championship Game on Sunday. Moreover, Duke has restated the formula to stop Army's offense--shut off Wagner, double Walker knowing he will still get his points, and dare the rest of Army's offense to beat you. Rutgers tried it and kept that game closer than perhaps it should have been, but did not have the D-middies to execute it. Duke had the personnel. Does Bucknell? In addition, the loss of Obringer disrupts the Army midfield lines that had been cohesive as units since early in the season.

At this juncture, I would not be surprised if Army loses to Bucknell and then to Ohio State on May 7. If that happens, I question Army's ability to make it into the NCAA Tournament, despite a Top-5 win over Cornell.
jakehyde@laxswami.com


On the road with Northwestern...
The #1 Wildcats visit Homewood Field in the rain and gloom...
Welcome to Balamer...
My trip to Baltimore did not start very well, let me tell you. I overslept my alarm by an hour and a half, and rush hour traffic is not a good thing when you're trying to get to the airport in a cab. Let's just say that on top of the upscale plane ticket and the nice hotel I had for the weekend, the Swami had to chip in a hefty price to get me to the airport.

I missed getting on my flight by oh, about 15 minutes.

So I waited around the airport. Then I waited some more. And then some more. Until, finally, I was on a plane and then I was in B-more. Dreary skies and cold wind welcomed me. Surprise.

But after driving around the city a bit, I rediscovered that Baltimore is not as bad as everyone always tells me it is. Nothing fabulous, but nothing terrible. I mean, they do have a cool baseball park and a cool Amtrak station.

However, the weather is pretty crummy, so I feel like I'm back in Chicago again watching Northwestern. By the time I enter the lit-up Homewood Field at 7 o'clock, the cold is biting through my jacket. But I'm excited for this game.

The top three scorers in the country. Two of the top teams in the American Lacrosse Conference. A No. 1 squad from the Midwest meets the storied Blue Jays program at Homewood Field to prove its worth. Sounds good, right?

And it started “real good” too (hey I'm in the South, I can use bad grammar). Both teams came out running fast and with some real energy. It started off noticeably even, or I guess I can say, each team was making the same good moves as well as the same mistakes. NU’s Lindsey Finocchiaro caused a Hopkins turnover :53, but her teammate Glassanos turned it over two minutes later. Hopkins picked up the ball and tried to settle it, and then Steph Janice got the game's first goal when she cut around Christy Finch. Janice’s shot bounced in front of NU goaltender Ashley Gersuk and then hit the inside top of the net.

There's some trouble with the next draw, but NU gets it, finally, on the third try. NU's Sarah Albrecht ties the game off the free position at 5:53. Hopkins’ Sarah Gallions breaks up a nice set -up from NU's Lindsey Munday to Kristen Kjellman, then 20 seconds or so later, Lacey-Leigh Hentz fouls a breaking Kjellman. The NU attack's wiz-kid scored off the free position to get her only goal of the game and to put her team up 2-1 at 7:51.

But Mary Key isn't the team's leading scorer for nothing. She was averaging more than five goals per game, and she got her first of Friday's game off a bullet pass from Lauran Schwarzmann at 10:50.

Hopkins had the momentum, but coach Janine Tucker decided to call her first timeout now, probably telling her players how important it was for them to get a lead and keep it.

It seems to work, because the Blue Jays kept the pressure up, forcing two turnovers and picking up a ground ball. Schwarzmann got her team's first free position goal three minutes after Key's when she squeezed the ball in that sliver of a space between Gersuk’s right shoulder and the post.

Schwarzmann must have been angry, somehow, for whatever reason, maybe because she had just scored. But she drew a yellow card when she cross-checked NU's Courtney Koester in the face. I thought I was watching a hockey game, just without the whole protective helmet thing. Koester shook it off, but I was still feeling the pain from that one.

That must have riled up the Wildcats, or at least Kjellman. Two minutes later, Kjellman caught a perfect feed from Munday, runs a semicircle around her defender, and shoots in the game-tying goal.

And then came the goal that Johns Hopkins would regret the rest of the game, because it put NU ahead. Until this point, the Blue Jays were playing the No. 1 team tit-for-tat, one-on-one, we’re-coming-at-you kind of thing. They were setting up some of their plays and preventing NU from setting up some of their own plays. But Aly Josephs, from nearby Reistertown, Md., sped past a few defenders from the mid-point of the NU offensive zone and bounced a shot in behind Lauren Riddick. It was 4-3, and NU went on to score eight more goals. Laura Glassanos got three of those goals,

Albrecht had two, and Lindsay Finocchiaro and Kate Darmody each had one.

The NU offense was patient, moved the ball more, and also held onto the ball more as the time passed. Hopkins mounted some offensive pressure, but the NU defense shut them down and kept it out of its defensive zone for the game's final 10 minutes.

How the country's top three scorers fared in this game:

1.NU Lindsey Munday led the Cats and the nation in scoring before the game, but had only one assist on Friday

2.JHU's Mary Key had only on point (her goal) for the first time of the season

3.NU Kristen Kjellman had three points, but still, that's low for her.

Both defenses shut down the big guns, but unfortunately for Johns Hopkins, only NU kept other offensive threats under control.

Final Score: NU 12, Johns Hopkins 3.
ccryan@laxswami.com

This Week...
Lacrosse broadcast links...
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It usually takes a while to get down all the many changes that college stations make to their webcasts between seasons, so be patient.

The Games of the Week:

..The Conference Tournaments
Friday and Sunday, April 30 and May 1, various times, Annapolis and Baltimore, MD

Listen to Pete Medhurst call the Navy game over WNAV 1430 AM. The pre-game show begins 15 minutes before the games. Click on WNAV logo.