Paul Rabil and Steven Boyle each recorded hat tricks as Johns Hopkins knocked Navy out of the NCAA men’s lacrosse tournament yesterday in Annapolis by a score of 10-4.

Coming into the game, the Midshipmen were the ones who got all the acclaim for their shut-down defense, but it was the Blue Jays who got defensive at the start of the second quarter. Hopkins held Navy without a goal for 33 minutes – including the duration of the entire second and third quarters – to turn a 3-2 deficit into an 8-3 advantage. The Midshipmen finally found the net again with 12:42 left in the game, but by then it was too late as the Blue Jays cruised to victory.

Hopkins advances to face No. 1-ranked Duke in the national semifinal next Saturday in Foxboro, Mass. Duke torched Ohio State this afternoon, 21-10, to force a rematch of last year’s national championship game. This one is going to be a good game, with so much on the line and so much bad blood between the two teams. Might this be the end of the road for the Blue Jays? My gut instinct is telling me “yes,” but Hopkins has historically had Duke’s number.

In other action, both the Maryland men’s and women’s lacrosse teams were eliminated from tournament play yesterday. The men blew a 7-4 lead to Virginia before losing in overtime, 8-7. The women were upset, 9-7, by Duke.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.