Charles Street Rivalry Renewed
The tenth ranked Johns Hopkins Blue Jays will make the short drive to number sixteen Loyola tomorrow. Opening face-off will be at 3:30 at Ridley Athletic Complex. Hopkins enters off an impressive win over Towson but tomorrow will be a much stiffer test. Loyola had a good second half in their loss to UVA. Here are some questions for both teams going into the contest.
For Johns Hopkins:
1. Can Cole Williams and the Hopkins offense continue to develop after a 15 goal performance last week?
2. How will the return of leading scorer Joey Epstein affect the offense? He hasn’t played in two scrimmages or the first game while recovering from a knee injury.
3. The trio of Hopkins FOGO’s looked good last week. Was that a result of Towson missing Alex Woodall or are the Jays that good at the X.
4. Can Ryan Darby and the Hopkins defense build on last week? This unit was a question mark entering the season and faced a Towson team missing some pieces due to injury. Loyola still has a good offense and will provide more evidence to answer this question.
For Loyola:
1. Which team shows up? Will it be the one who trailed 9-3 in the first half or the one who outscored the Cavaliers 6-3 in the second?
2. Can the offense continue to play well without Pat Spencer and Chase Scanlon?
3. Does Sam Shafer continue to play well in the cage with film available for the Hopkins shooters to scout?
4. Can Loyola win some face-offs to limit possessions for a potent Hopkins attack?
I will be at Ridley on Saturday and will post an article with the answers to these questions and more afterwards.
