  For McDonogh Class of '99 Home Sweet Homewood May 21, 1999: McDonogh School, led by an excellent senior class including goalie Rob Scherr, defenseman Joe Rosenbaum, midfielders Owen Daly and Brad Dumont, and attackman Bobby Benson, captured the 1999 MIAA title by defeating Loyola 18-8 in front of a sellout crowd at Johns Hopkins' Homewood Field. This completed an amazing turnaround, as this class played as freshmen on a team that went 0-10 in league play in 1996. McDonogh's 19-2 championship season earned them a #2 ranking in Lacrosse Magazine, and many believe they deserved the number one spot. March 4, 2000: The same five guys-Scherr, Rosenbaum, Daly, Dumont, and Benson, are all playing on Homewood Field again. But this time, everything is different. They're no longer all on the same team-Rosenbaum, Daly, and Dumont played for Princeton against their former teammates, Scherr and Benson, who played for Johns Hopkins. And, being freshmen in their first game, these five did not own the field like they did ten months ago. Some played most of the game; some didn't play at all. For Johns Hopkins, Benson scored two points. For Princeton, Rosenbaum contributed at long-stick midfield and Daly added a goal. Princeton defeated Johns Hopkins 15-11 on Saturday in one of three critical games between top ten teams on this season-opening weekend. A near-capacity crowd of 6,272 showed up to see a good match-up and, although the game may not have been as exciting as the Syracuse-Virginia overtime thriller, the fans were not disappointed. There were plenty of interesting sidelights to this game; Princeton freshman Damien Davis' tough assignment on Johns Hopkins senior attackman Dan Denihan; the performance of Matt Striebel and Trevor Tierney; the naked guy who ran down its sideline early in the fourth quarter. "We've been looking forward to this game ever since we decided where we wanted to go," said Rosenbaum, "Bobby (Benson) and I have been talking about this game all week." Even though he was not expected to see the field, Rob Scherr had some mixed feelings about the upcoming game. "I thought about it all week," he said, "I thought it would be weird, but when I got to the field, it didn't even cross my mind." Once the opening whistle blew, the former McDonogh Eagles were able to focus on the game and ignore the fact that they were playing against each other. Benson said that once the game started, "I didn't notice who they were, and they probably didn't notice who I was. There were just orange jerseys running around." "Once you get out there on the first run there's a lot of butterflies, but once you catch that first pass and get that first ground ball it's basically out of you," said Daly. It's tough enough to be a freshman playing against Princeton or Johns Hopkins in your first college lacrosse game in front of such a large crowd. But for these McDonogh guys, it was even tougher for them because of all the distractions surrounding the game. They were playing in their hometown in front of friends and family and going against their best friends. Of course, that just made it more exciting for the always-knowledgeable Homewood lacrosse crowds. |
 Lund on Lacrosse By Peter Lund March, 2000
 Bobby Benson, Rob Scherr and Joe Rosenbaum were 1999 E-lacrosse Tech Team members  
 The E-Lacrosse High School Section! |
the fence is always
the toughest part
