Dismuke turns rebound into win
Pietramala out with infection; Dwan fills in
Wilkins Dismuke has scored 13 goals playing for the Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team, 226 for Rock Canyon High School in his native Colorado and countless others for club teams. But he didn't need much time to rank his overtime tally that sent the No. 8 Blue Jays to a thrilling 11-10 upset of No. 3 Syracuse at Homewood Field in Baltimore on Saturday.
“First,” the junior attackman declared. “Best feeling in the world, definitely. It was amazing.”
Dismuke's goal with 2:09 left in the extra session sent a majority of the announced attendance of 1,776 into hysterics and prompted his teammates to mob him behind the Orange cage. It marked just the second time since 2007 that Johns Hopkins (4-2) had defeated Syracuse (5-1) at home in one of the best rivalries in the sport.
It also gave Bill Dwan his first win as a head coach. Dwan, the team's associate head coach, filled in for head coach Dave Pietramala, who was sidelined by what the university described as a lower back infection.
The malady limited Pietramala all week but especially became a problem after Wednesday's practice. Pietramala missed a game for the first time in his 16-year tenure with the Blue Jays, and it is unclear when he will be able to return.
After Johns Hopkins sophomore Hunter Moreland won the faceoff to open overtime, freshman midfielder Drew Supinski raced down the left alley and took a shot that senior goalkeeper Warren Hill initially stopped. But the ball popped up, Dismuke corralled it, and he put it into the cage to cement the 13th one-goal decision in the past 28 meetings since 1995.
“He dodged with his left hand and let one fly on the run, and it just kind of went off the goalie's chest,” Dismuke recounted. “It went right off his chest and went up in the air. I thought it was up in the air for a minute-and-a-half. But it came down right in my stick — luckily for me — and then I just saw a whole bunch of net and just put it in the back of the net.”
Dismuke's goal capped a three-goal run in the final four minutes of regulation and overtime. Trailing 10-8 after redshirt junior midfielder Sergio Salcido's second goal of the game with 6:01 left in the fourth quarter, Johns Hopkins mounted its comeback.
“I thought the Blue Jays did a great job today, especially in the second half when they really hung with it,” Syracuse coach John Desko said. “We had a couple opportunities to pull away, and they came up tough. I thought they did a really good job on faceoffs. Gave them some really valuable possessions.”
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