Harrison lifts Hopkins past Navy

BALTIMORE — If there were any doubts who the best player in college lacrosse is, Kyle Harrison put them away yesterday.

Harrison scored a career-high five goals, including the tying goal in the last minute of regulation and the winner in overtime, as top-ranked Johns Hopkins edged No. 5 Navy 9-8 before 6,308 at Homewood Field.

“I’m disappointed we had to ride the back of No. 18,” Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala said. “I thought we rode his back too much today. Thankfully, he cares an awful lot about what we do here.”

The Midshipmen (9-3) lost to Hopkins (10-0) for the 31st straight time, falling in an overtime thriller to the Blue Jays for the second consecutive year.

Navy’s Steve Looney secured a groundball off the faceoff to start overtime and raced down to take a shot. Hopkins got several sticks on Looney and the ball sailed out of bounds. Navy’s Graham Gill appeared to cover it, but the officials awarded possession to Hopkins.

The Blue Jays never let Navy get it back. Greg Peyser skipped a shot through to the left side to Harrison, who ducked under Navy short stick Clipper Lennon and fired a shot past goalie Matt Russell (seven saves) with 2:13 left in overtime for the winner.

“I didn’t think it would necessarily come down to me,” Harrison said. “I think we have a lot of talented players on offense. … Navy had a great defense and I was fortunate enough to put the ball in the goal today.”

Navy trailed 6-3 early in the second half, but it ripped off four goals in 3:42 span to take a 7-6 lead into the fourth quarter. However, Harrison charged past Navy’s Mitch Hendler with 12:20 left to tie it.

The Mids didn’t permit Harrison to make much of a difference again for more than 11 minutes. Navy milked the clock for two possessions of more than four minutes, giving Hopkins a taste of the keepaway approach the Blue Jays often use to finish off flustered foes.

Navy nearly threw it away with just more than a minute left, but defenseman Mike Felber secured possession and ran into the offensive half while Billy Looney deftly slipped onto the other side. Felber got it to Jon Birsner, who then fed an open Nick Mirabito with 58 seconds left to give Navy an 8-7 lead.

After Peyser’s faceoff win and a timeout, Hopkins attackman Peter LeSueur slipped behind the cage and threaded a pass to Harrison. The senior darted past the double team of short stick Dan Harris and defenseman Andrew Dow and buried a perfect shot in the upper left corner to tie it.

“Harrison’s such a great player,” Navy coach Richie Meade said. “We defended him as well as we can and he’s just one of those guys with great judgement and great skills. The other players, I thought we did a decent job, but with Kyle there’s not much you can do.”

Hopkins dominated faceoffs for the first half, and Peyser went 8-for-13 while filling in for the injured Lou Braun. But otherwise, the numbers favored Navy — six turnovers in the second half, a 21-13 edge in shots after halftime and a 34-31 edge in groundballs.

However, the Blue Jays had Harrison, and that was enough.

“He meant everything today,” Peyser said. “He’s debatably the best player in the country and he showed it today. I know Coach says he doesn’t want to ride him, but he’s good enough where we can kind of ride him. He showed it today with five huge goals.”