Anytime Syracuse defeats Johns Hopkins in lacrosse, it will get mentioned on this site. It might take a couple days, but eventually, I'll get there.
The Orange beat the Blue Jays 14-11 on Saturday in Syracuse in a game that Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala summed up in a very simple way:
"We all try to make this a pretty complicated game," Pietramala said following No. 2 Syracuse's 14-11 victory over the No. 6 Blue Jays before a crowd of 9,197 in the Carrier Dome, "and it's really not. You've got to defend, and probably more important than anything, you've got to pick up groundballs and you've got to pass and catch. The easiest way to sum up this game is we didn't pick up groundballs.
SU won the ground-ball battle 30-22 and the Orange featured a balanced attack with 12 different players accumulating at least one point. Sophomore Josh Amidon (3G) and senior Matt Abbott (2G, 2A) led the way. Hopkins made a furious charge at the end of the game, scoring five goals in the final five minutes, but it was too little too late.
The win kept the Orange in the #2 spot in both polls. And if there's anything the NCAA lacrosse community has learned so far it's that it's Virginia, Syracuse and then everybody else.
The Orange will get a chance to continue proving just that this weekend when they take on Binghamton in a bit of a breather. The Bearcats are 1-5 on the season with their lone win over Marist.They may pick up their second win of the season tomorrow when they play something called Bellermine.
Finally, a reminder, we're not that far away from the Big City Classic at Giants Stadium on April 4th. The #2 Orange will take on the #5 Princeton Tigers in a classic lacrosse showdown. Also on tap is #1 Virginia vs. #10 North Carolina and Delaware vs. Hofstra. If you're a lacrosse fan in the area, you cannot possibly be anywhere else that day. And if you're all the way up in the Syracuse area and unable to procure transportation, good news, you can catch the bus there. Bring an iPod, it's gonna take a while.