Goal!

David and I went up to Johns Hopkins today to watch the Blue Jay annihilate Loyola. It was a good day for Lacrosse - not too hot so the team could run around, not too cold, and we sat with our backs to the sun, so we didn't even have to squint. I armed myself with a cherry snowball and got David a lemonade and we sat back to enjoy the game.

Now Hopkins' Homecoming is in the spring rather than the fall because it's built around Lacrosse, so there was a good turnout for the game (7000 plus attendees).

Things started with the presentation of flowers to the mothers of the graduating seniors and it turned out that several of these parents were sitting behind us, which made the game even better. One Lacrosse Dad seemed to know the game pretty well and he had a nice carrying voice, so by keeping my mouth shut and listening (which, on rare occasion, I am capable of doing), I got a pretty decent play-by-play. He noted, f'rinstance, that the Blue Jays were having real trouble getting possession after the face-offs. Sure enough, they did.

And the Lacrosse Moms would chat back and forth in nice, loud, carrying voices. After absorbing this for a while I leaned over and whispered to David that if one were at a loss for a response and wanted to fit in in this crowd, one could just yell at Benson. He agreed.

At one point, Benson went down and from behind me one of the Lacrosse Moms yelled - really loud - "Get up, Benson!!!" Our whole section burst out laughing and she said "What? You'd do the same, right?" and another Lacrosse Mom totally agreed with her. And we all believe that Benson heard his Mom because he was on his feet within a couple of seconds of her yell.

I also like the Lacrosse Mom who told her friends, "I told Christopher 'It's not the job of the defense to make the game exciting. Offense can handle that.' " She, in fact, spent most of the yelling "Defense!!" but her voice doesn't carry as well as Benson's Mom's voice, so they may not have heard her.

Hopkins took an early lead and maintained it. Even though they did have trouble getting possession after the face-off, they knew what to do with the ball when they got it. In my opinion, it took the Blue Jays a while to get their feet under them and Loyola started out a lot tighter and more focused (the shots on goal would back that up), but as the game went on, Loyola crumbled. At one point the score was 12-3, Hopkins. Loyola rallied in the last period, but Hopkins kept their heads and the final score was 12-6, Blue Jays.

And every time Hopkins scored, we yell the count and demand "We want more!" So after the second goal, 1! 2! We want more! At about 5 goals, I joined in the counting but never the demand for more goals. It just seemed to greedy, you know?

All in all, a good day for a game.