The 55th installment of the Syracuse-Johns Hopkins rivalry will take place on Saturday as the No. 3 Orange (5-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) head to Homewood Field to face the No. 8 Blue Jays (3-2) at 4 p.m.

Syracuse is coming off a 15-4 drubbing of St. John’s on March 12, but will face its first Top 10 opponent of the season.

Johns Hopkins most recently took down then-No. 6 Towson, 14-8, on March 12. The Blue Jays have faced three teams ranked No. 11 or better already this year.

All-time series: Johns Hopkins leads 28-25-1

Last time they played: Johns Hopkins halted No. 1 ranked and No. 2 seeded Syracuse’s run in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament last season, beating the Orange, 16-15, in Annapolis, Maryland. SU was fresh off its first Atlantic Coast Conference championship and had beaten the Blue Jays, 13-10, two months earlier. But the Orange fell behind several times and had to come back from four deficits in the tournament matchup.

The Blue Jays outscored Syracuse, 5-1, in the third quarter to take an 11-8 lead going into the final frame. Though Johns Hopkins seemed to hold a commanding 13-9 advantage with less than 10 minutes to play, SU fought back. The Orange scored three times in the last minute of the game to pull within one. With 23 seconds left in the game, Syracuse faceoff specialist Ben Williams pulled the ball back toward himself on the final faceoff and tried to scoop it up. He couldn’t get the ball into his stick as he took a step toward the offensive zone and the Blue Jays took possession as the final seconds elapsed.

The Johns Hopkins report: The Blue Jays offense averages 12.4 goals per game and is orchestrated by sophomore attack Shack Stanwick. He is second in the country with 3.4 assists per game and fourth with 5.2 points per game. Stanwick leads Johns Hopkins with 26 points with his older brother and the team’s second-leading point producer from last year, Wells Stanwick, lost to graduation.

Ryan Brown is the Blue Jays’ go-to goal scorer with 15 goals on the season — a team-high. He’s the only player on the squad with 10 or more goals and has a 37-game goal streak going until it was snapped against Princeton on March 5. His average of three goals per game is tied for eighth-best in the nation. Against Syracuse in 2014, Brown scored eight of Johns Hopkins’ 10 goals on the way to a 12-10 loss.

Defensively, Blue Jays defender Nick Fields will likely be guarding Syracuse point man Dylan Donahue. Fields has only produced one caused turnover on the season and leads the team with five penalties. However, in the previous two games, Fields’ assigned players notched just two assists and no goals. He’s also picked up the most ground balls (10) outside of the Blue Jays’ faceoff specialist and goalie.

“We think Nick’s a very talented player …,” Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala said on a teleconference this week, “but we can’t afford to go into this game saying, ‘OK, Nick you’ve got your guy and that’s what we’re going to worry about.’”

Craig Madarasz has handled the bulk of the faceoff load (46-of-90) with Hunter Moreland pitching in at times (24-of-33). Brock Turnbaugh takes care of the duties in goal. Turnbaugh is saving 52.5 percent of the shots he sees, which is 26th in the country.

How Johns Hopkins beats Syracuse: Pietramala joked that the key to beating Syracuse would be if the Orange just didn’t get off the bus. Realistically, the Blue Jays focus will be on maximizing its possessions.

The Orange scores more than 14 goals per game — third best in the nation. And with Williams winning more than 70 percent of his faceoffs — second best — its nearly impossible for teams to match the scoring output because they don’t have the ball.

On the defensive end, the Blue Jays will have to take advantage of every backup, every ground ball and clear the ball at a high rate in order to get it up to the offense. The team only clears the ball at an 83.3 percent success rate. When Syracuse played Virginia, the Cavaliers were beaten at the faceoff X, 18-11, but dominated getting to ground balls, 43-29. As a result, UVA lost by just one goal.

The Johns Hopkins defenders will be focused on getting pressure on Syracuse’s shooters by “getting to hands,” Pietramala said. What stands out to him is SU’s top players’ high shooting percentages this season. Derek DeJoe has 10 goals and is shooting over 52 percent, while Nick Mariano leads the Orange will 11 and is shooting 42.3 percent.

In order for the Blue Jays to compete, they’ll have to get the ball to the other side of the field and into the hands of Brown and Stanwick to try to make things happen.

“We’re willing to play. And we’re going to have to play in order to score goals or at least try to score goals,” Pietramala said. “… But having enough possessions to be able to generate offensive is going to be important.”

 

Logan Reidsma | Senior Staff Photographer

 

Numbers to know:

63.2  – Johns Hopkins man-up team has had a 63.2 percent success rate, which is the third highest in the country. Syracuse’s man-down defense is 51st.

3 – The Blue Jays have had the third-toughest schedule so far this season, playing teams with a combined 63.8 winning percentage. Only Maryland and Duke have had tougher schedules

1921 – The year the Syracuse and Johns Hopkins first played. The game was a 4-4 tie and the only tie in the series.

Player to watch: Ryan Brown

Stanwick directs the offense, but it’s Brown that provides the firepower. With Syracuse likely to maintain a significant advantage on faceoffs, Brown will have to take advantage of each offensive opportunity that may come few and far between. There are enough pieces around him that Brown won’t need another eight-goal performance against SU, but he’ll be the one to set the tone for Johns Hopkins’ offense.

Published on March 18, 2016 at 11:30 am

Contact Jon: jrmettus@syr.edu | @jmettus