Johnny Victory's post-game notes: Loyola vs. Johns Hopkins

On a cold, snowy afternoon at the Ridley Athletic Complex, Loyola (1-1) and Johns Hopkins (1-1) undertook the 55th rendition of the Battle of Charles Street. Behind a stellar defense and looking to rebound from their double OT loss to Virginia last week, Loyola rebounded in a big way, trucking the Blue Jays, 12-5.

WHERE’S PAT? If you would’ve told anyone, particularly Loyola, before the game that leading scorer Pat Spencer would only have a single goal and they still would’ve won by seven, they probably would’ve said you were nuts. Well that’s exactly what happened. With Hopkins keying on stopping Spencer, who was relegated to a feeder role (3a), Hopkins dared the rest of the Hounds to beat them and that’s exactly what Loyola did as seven different players found the net, to include multi-goal efforts from four different folks.

EMO KIDS: Hopkins came in touting a perfect extra-man unit having gone 3-for-3 against Towson. On this day however, Loyola’s defense shut them out on all five EMO opportunities they had.

WHATS UP WITH?: Hopkins being so out of sorts in such a big rivalry game, even if just their second contest of the season? Not only was their offense, which posted 14 goals against 2017 NCAA semifinalist Towson last week, having trouble but they committed 22 turnovers, to include 12 in the second half and seven penalties. They also had some issues defensively. On Duffy’s second tally of the third quarter, the Hopkins D failed to check up leaving him wide open and he beat Turnbaugh stickside low.

STILL NEEDS WORK: Loyola’s FO game was not particularly strong going just 6 of 20. Credit there goes to Hopkins FO man Hunter Moreland, who was strong all day winning 14 of 20 at the X.

SWEET SOUNDS: We could seriously listen to Dave Cottle all afternoon. The former Loyola headman provided the color commentary for the Patriot League feed on watchstadium.com. Relying on his nearly 40 years of coaching experience, he not only sees things as or before they happen, he relays what is happening in an understated way, which makes for some great listening (and watching). Right before Loyola middie Brian Begley’s second goal in transition, Cottle watched the play develop and was in the process of saying, “If he can just dodge his man …” and as if one cue, Begley dodged, beat his man and scored.

NO PLACE LIKE HOME: Everything seemed to go Loyola’s way on the afternoon. Middie Jay Drapeau’s third goal of the day came off a rebound that hit Hopkins’ goalie Jacob Turnbaugh’s leg and caromed directly to Drapeau who deposited the gift in the back of the net. On another play, Hopkins defenseman Pat Foley got tangled in the net and trying to cover his man and fell. Loyola converted with a long pass from Spencer to Alex McGovern, which he promptly put past Turnbaugh.

TURNING TIDE?: While Hopkins still owns this series 48-7, Loyola has now won three of the last four. This was the largest margin of victory in the series since 2005, a 12-6 Hopkins win. The largest all-time margin of victory still remains Hopkins’ 29-3 win in 1959.

WHAT’D YOU EXPECT, IT’S A RIVALRY GAME: Toward the end of the contest, a check from a Loyola defender left Hopkins’ midfielder Joel Tinney without his helmet.

OFFENSIVE POG: Drapeau was the man notching his first hat trick of the season and opening the scoring with a sweet underhanded goal on the doorstep.

DEFENSIVE POG: Loyola goalie Jacob Stover was a wall, stopping 12 shots and allowing just one second-half goal.

3 orange slices: Drapeau (L) (3 g, 0 a); Brian Begley (L) (2 g, 2 a).

2 orange slices: Spencer (L) (1 g, 3 a); Aiden Olmstead (L) (1 g, 1 a)

1 orange slice: Moreland (H) (1 g, 1 a, 14-20 FO).