Fans of the Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse program finally got a chance to watch Dominic and Dave Pietramala perform together at Homewood Field. The problem was that the father-son duo competed for the opponent.

Dominic Pietramala scored a game-high six goals and Dave Pietramala molded a defense that did just enough to lift No. 9 North Carolina to a 13-12 upset of the No. 3 Blue Jays on Saturday afternoon before an announced 1,988.

For 20 years, Dave Pietramala, a former All-American defenseman at Johns Hopkins, had guided his alma mater to NCAA championships in 2005 and 2007 and became the program’s all-time winningest coach with 207 victories. But shortly after the 2020 season was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, Pietramala’s contract was not renewed, and he became a free agent.

Pietramala went to Syracuse, where he was the defensive coordinator in 2021 and 2022. His twin sons, Dominic, an attackman, and Nick, a defenseman, joined him with the Orange and then transferred to the Tar Heels when their father moved south.

The irony of sparking North Carolina to a win against a Blue Jays team that had employed his father and been his preferred destination was not lost on Dominic Pietramala, a redshirt sophomore who grew up in Lutherville and graduated from Boys’ Latin.

“This is our childhood, this was our dream,” he said. “It was our dream to come here and play for him here. While we unfortunately couldn’t play here, we did get to play together, and that’s a dream come true, and that’s all I could ask for.”

Besides Pietramala, the Tar Heels got four goals and one assist from sophomore attackman Owen Duffy and one goal and two assists from senior midfielder Ryan Levy to score the most goals surrendered by the Johns Hopkins defense this season. North Carolina scored the first three goals in the game’s first 57 seconds and added another 3-0 run later in the first quarter.

Even after junior midfielder Matt Collison’s goal with 13:05 left in the fourth quarter gave the Blue Jays their first lead of the game, the Tar Heels went on another 3-0 burst fueled by a goal and an assist from Levy and a goal from Pietramala for a 13-11 advantage.

Johns Hopkins had a chance to tie the score with less than two minutes remaining. But senior attackman Russell Melendez’s shot from the top of the right alley was swallowed up by graduate student goalkeeper Michael Gianforcaro’s stick with 1:14 to go, and North Carolina ran out the clock to improve to 3-0 for the first time since 2021 and 8-0 at Homewood Field since 2006.

Gianforcaro, a two-time Ivy League selection from his time at Princeton, said he owed it to his team after giving up a goal to Blue Jays sophomore defenseman Quintan Kilrain with 2:08 left.

“To be honest, I let a soft one in, I thought, on the possession before, and Coach Pietramala just said, ‘You’ve got to make us one there,’” Gianforcaro said. “When you miss one, you’ve got to make up for it. I was just so lucky and thank God I made that save.”

Melendez, a Severna Park resident and Archbishop Spalding graduate, amassed a game-high seven points on five goals and two assists, Collison finished with two goals and one assist, and graduate student goalkeeper Luke Staudt turned back a game-best 10 shots. But Johns Hopkins (4-1) failed to enjoy its first 5-0 start with victories against four ranked opponents against then-No. 10 Denver on Feb. 1, then-No. 17 Towson on Feb. 4, then-No. 10 Georgetown on Feb. 8 and the Tar Heels.

“We started terrible,” Peter Milliman said. “Being down 3-0 in less than a minute is not a good way to be in the game. Kind of digging ourselves out of that hole, we gave them some runs. We were just not clean.”

Division I men

No. 2 Maryland 13 No. 5 Princeton 9: The Terps improved to 4-0 for the seventh time in nine seasons with a win over the host Tigers on Saturday. Maryland scored the opening goal less than a minute into the game, but Princeton (1-1) scored four of the following five goals to lead 4-2 midway through the first quarter. The Terps answered with a 6-0 scoring run spanning nearly 25 minutes to build an 8-4 lead they never surrendered.

Maryland was led by Zach Whittier (2 goals, 1 assist), Braden Erksa (2 goals, 1 assist), Daniel Kelly (2 goals, 1 assist), Matthew Keegan (2 goals) and Jack Schultz (2 goals) as eight Terps scored at least once. Bryce Ford (1 goal, 1 assist), Aidan Aitken and Eric Spanos also scored.

With 12 saves, Logan McNaney moved to third on the school’s all-time saves list (633), passing Niko Amato (625 from 2011 to 2014).

Rutgers 10, Loyola Maryland 5:Max Watkinson made a career-high 19 saves on Saturday, but the host Scarlet Knights (3-2) handed the Greyhounds a fourth straight loss to open the season. Ryan McGorry had two goals for Loyola.

Saint Joseph’s 11, Towson 6: The Hawks scored the final five goals to run away from the host Tigers on Saturday. After Chop Gallagher scored to tie the game at 6 with 12:39 left in the third quarter, Towson was held scoreless the rest of the way in falling to 0-4 on the season. Josh Webber had two goals and three assists for the Tigers, who outshot the Hawks 50-31 but couldn’t solve Saint Joseph’s goalie Tommy Gross (17 saves).

No. 10 Penn State 13, No. 20 Navy 7: The host Nittany Lions (3-1) scored six of the final seven goals to pull away from the Midshipmen (3-1) on Saturday. Evan Conway scored three goals to lead Navy, which pulled within 7-6 late in the first half before scoring just once in the final two quarters. Dan Daly made 19 saves for the Mids, who were outshot 53-27.

Division I women

Delaware 12, Mount St. Mary’s 9:Anna McQuay and Mackenzi Furlong each scored two goals, but the host Mountaineers’ late rally fell short in a loss to the Blue Hens (2-1) on Saturday. Delaware took a 10-4 lead in the third quarter, but Mount St. Mary’s (2-1) pulled within two, 11-9, with 6:37 to go before being denied.

No. 9 Maryland 18, Saint Joseph’s 7:Shelby Sullivan, Maisy Clevenger and Kori Edmondson each scored three goals to lead the host Terps (2-1) over the Hawks (1-4) on Saturday. Kayla Gilmore (2 goals, 2 assists) and Jordyn Lipkin (2 goals, 1 assist) also chipped in on offense as Maryland scored the game’s first eight goals while holding Saint Joseph’s scoreless for 30 minutes.

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