Hopkins rolls over Hens

Johns Hopkins powered past the Delaware men's lacrosse team Tuesday night for an 18-5 victory. The Blue Jays are currently ranked ninth in the country, and the Hens' current rank of 16 is sure to take a hit after the loss.

The 13-goal deficit is the worst loss for Delaware since an 18-4 loss to Towson in 2002.

Tuesday's loss drops the Hens to 3-1 and takes them out of first place in the CAA. Hopkins improved to 2-0.

The Hens turned the ball over only two more times than the Blue Jays did and won just under half of the face-offs, but the difference in the game was efficiency on offense. Hopkins blocked 12 of the Hens' 17 shots, while the Hens only blocked seven of Hopkins' 25 shots.

"They're good shooters," Delaware head coach Bob Shillinglaw said. "And we got a whoopin', no question about it."

Zach Palmer was the star of the night for Hopkins, scoring four goals and adding three assists. Kyle Wharton and Eric Ruhl each threw in a hat trick, and six other players rounded out the rest of the Blue Jays' scoring.

"You should learn from every win, every loss. This is disappointing," Delaware goalie Noah Fossner said. "Get a day off, hit the field Thursday, get better, get better, get better, play Sunday."

Normally dominant face-off man Dan Cooney also struggled. After dictating the face-offs in the team's first three games, Cooney ran into his first roadblock Tuesday. He nearly split the decisions but had difficulty moving the ball into the Hopkins' zone on several occasions.

Much of the struggle on offense for Delaware was its inability to finish off plays with a good shot.

"We've definitely got to shoot better, we gave him a lot of easy saves," senior co-captain John Austin said. "We were shooting right to his stick."

Austin's two goals led the Hens, with Nick Elsmo, Taylor Burns and Anthony each netting one for the other scores.

"We were trying to put a round peg in a square hole," Shillinglaw said. "Definitely a lack of execution. Their momentum picked up, and it was hard for us to regain any kind of momentum at that point."

On Sunday, the Hens will host unranked Bellarmine. They will then go on the road to face a tough Albany team and fifth-ranked Stony Brook.