Johns Hopkins has been here before.

Just last season, in fact.

The Blue Jays head out of February and into Saturday’s trip to Princeton at 1-2, just as they dropped two of their first three last year before regrouping to reach the NCAA quarterfinals.

“Unlike everybody else who seems to have panicked, we haven’t,” coach Dave Pietramala said. “Unlike everyone else, who seems to want to forget it’s still February, it’s still, what, Feb. 26? We’re not even out of February. The amount of lacrosse that is left is ridiculous. With what’s going on around the sport, not just this year but in recent years, you learn not to panic in February.”

It’s actually possible Hopkins is in better shape at this stage. Last year, it opened with a defeat of a Towson team that was headed for a sub-.500 season, then lost to Loyola and North Carolina. This year, they dropped games to Charles Street rivals Loyola and Towson, who have entrenched themselves as top-10 teams in the early going, before claiming an 11-10 victory in bog-like conditions at North Carolina.

Pietramala acknowledged his team’s showing against Towson was “horrific.” The Blue Jays didn’t respond appropriately --- or, perhaps worse, at all --- to the Tigers’ run in the middle of the game.

But then came a loss to Loyola that could be chalked up as much to the Greyhounds’ exceptional play as anything. Hopkins wasn’t good enough to win that day, but the effort was much more to Pietramala’s liking.

Then on Saturday, the Blue Jays saw more improvement during a 5-1 run in the middle of the second half. Freshman Joey Epstein had two goals and two assists in the victory, one of several underclassmen to contribute to the victory.

That’s a striking to contrast to a year ago, when Hopkins had tested pieces all over the field, whether it was the offensive tablesetter (Shack Stanwick), a charismatic midfielder (Joel Tinney), a veteran faceoff man (Hunter Moreland) or a senior goalie (Brock Turnbaugh).

“This team is very different than last year’s in terms of maturity,” Pietramala said. “When you look at the middle of the field, it’s young kid after young kid. It’s freshmen and sophomores. Those are new faces that are learning to compete and excel in greater roles. The chance for growth certainly is greater because of that youth.”

And, as Pietramala pointed out, there’s a lot of time to improve. As he knows all too well, early results have a way of being forgotten as the story of the season improves.

It happened last year when Hopkins won the Big Ten tournament, and it did for a few years before then when the Blue Jays sputtered in May.

“It’s February lacrosse; I’m not sure how well-prepared we all are to play at a high level at this time of year,” Pietramala said while ticking off some unexpected results from the last month. “Our goal is to improve every week. That was our goal last year, and we did. We were playing our best lacrosse at the end. For a couple years, we were playing too well early and not well enough when it mattered most.”

Keydets’ Tangible Progress

Only six undefeated teams remain in Division I after Wednesday’s play.

VMI, a team off to its first 2-0 start since 2000, is one of them.

The Keydets, who have upended Manhattan and NJIT, hope it’s only the beginning of a breakout season.

“We talked a lot in the preseason that we worked really hard and that work is going to pay off in a lot of firsts,” coach Jon Birsner said. “We talked about some of those firsts that we’ve already accomplished, like winning a season opener and our first 2-0 start. There’s a lot of lacrosse left, but we’re excited that our kids are being rewarded.”

One of VMI’s biggest obstacles during Birsner’s first three seasons was establishing balance among the classes. The Keydets were routinely forced to rely on young players, with predictable results.

Sophomore Ryan Perouty (six goals and six assists) and junior John Daniel (six goals) were already tested before this season. The same wasn’t the case of junior goalie Benjamin Stump, who was pressed into action when sophomore starter Bill Osteen suffered a broken thumb in the preseason. But Stump has posted a .600 save percentage in his first two career starts.

Birsner credits senior defenseman Kyle Walsh for providing the backbone of the team. And while the Keydets are just starting to enjoy victories now, he knows it’s been a four-year process to combined a talent influx and culture upgrade to get to this point.

“We had to change a lot here --- how hard we worked, on and off the field,” Birsner said. “There’s player-driven accountability, and that’s the biggest thing. That’s important, especially this year. The leadership of the team has ownership of everything we do. The kids run this team, and as coaches we put them in places to be successful.”

Pioneering Freshmen

As Denver coach Bill Tierney ran down his options on offense late in the fall, he rattled off Ellis Geis as a possible contributor amongst a list of about a half-dozen others.

It was nothing against the 6-foot-4 freshman from California. It’s just that Tierney figured he had a capable starting attack ready to go with tested players.

“If we had everyone, we would have Ethan Walker on the left wing, Austin French at X and Colin Rutan on the right wing,” Tierney said this week. “And Ellis Geis would have gotten in in mop-up duty. He was good in the fall, but we weren’t sure, just like we weren’t sure about Drew Erickson or Johnny Marrocco. Until they get their opportunities in games that are meaningful, you don’t know how they’ll respond.”

Only the Pioneers (3-1) don’t have everyone. French has yet to play this season because of injury, creating an opening on attack. And Denver now knows exactly how Geis will respond. He has a team-high 10 goals entering Saturday’s trip to North Carolina, with Tierney understandably praising his effectiveness.

Geis is the most productive of a large Denver freshman class already contributing. Alex Simmons, who Tierney did anticipate would have a substantial role in the offense, has six goals and two assists while adjusting to playing with midfielders who possess college experience.

Then there’s the Brett Boos, who earned the chance to follow four-time first team All-America pick Trevor Baptiste as the Pioneers’ primary faceoff man. Boos has won 61.5 percent of his draws, including a 20 of 23 outing against Utah on Saturday that Tierney ventured was “Baptiste-esque” because the freshman collected 10 ground balls in the process.

As for Geis’ stellar start, there’s only one real question: What happens when French gets back?

“We’re going to have a good problem,” Tierney said.

Numbers of Note

24

Virginia goalie Patrick Burkinshaw made 24 saves in his collegiate debut as the Cavaliers defeated Princeton 11-10 in overtime. It shattered the Virginia freshman record for saves in a game of 18 held previously by Rodney Rullman (twice), Tillman Johnson and Griffin Thompson.

4-0

Delaware is 4-0 for the first time since 2008 after its 14-6 defeat of Saint Joseph’s on Tuesday. Goalie Matt DeLuca has made at least 10 saves in each of the Blue Hens’ victories and leads the country with a 5.11 goals-against average.

22

Add this to Yale faceoff specialist TD Ierlan’s career accomplishments. He’s the first Division I player ever to have two games with at least 22 groundballs after doing so in Saturday’s defeat of Penn State. Ierlan also had 22 groundballs last season against Cornell while playing for Albany. Only five others have ever collected 22 groundballs, including the 27 all-time single-game leader Andy Kraus of Virginia snared against Duke in 1988.