Angelus thriving in first full season at attack for Hopkins
It hasn’t been a good time to be a Washington sports fan. Just ask Jacob Angelus.
Angelus, a Chantilly, Virginia, resident and senior attackman on the Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse team, has been an avid fan of all four professional franchises in the nation’s capital, especially the Commanders and Capitals. Even though all four teams missed the postseason in their most recent campaigns, loyalty isn’t an issue for Angelus.
“Just five years ago, the Caps were the Stanley Cup champions and the Nats won the World Series [in 2019],” he said. “So I can’t complain about never seeing my team win because I have seen them win. It’s something they go through, and I’m sure those franchises will figure it out. I’m always going to root for them no matter what.”
Fortunately for Angelus, he has another, more positive distraction. He and the No. 6 seed Blue Jays (12-5) will meet No. 3 seed Notre Dame (11-2) in an NCAA Tournament quarterfinal Sunday at approximately 2:30 p.m. at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis.
Angelus has been a catalyst for Johns Hopkins. He ranks fifth among all Division I players in assists with 42 and seventh in assists per game at 2.6 and leads the offense in points with 59.
The Blue Jays, who shared the Big Ten regular-season championship with No. 5 seed Penn State, are seeking their first trip to the Final Four since 2015. Offensive coordinator John Crawley said Angelus will play a significant role in the team’s fate.
“He obviously does a lot of things that show up on the score sheet, and he’s had an unbelievable season in terms of feeding the ball and having a ton of assists,” he said. “But I think the stuff he does behind the scenes, he’s done so much for us whether it’s drawing a slide or moving off the ball or making correct reads or feeding it to people who aren’t necessarily scorers. I don’t know if you can take anybody out of our offense who would make more of an impact than Jacob.”
Angelus’ success this spring stems partly from the coaches’ decision to move him from the midfield to the attack for the final seven games of last season. Through the first 28 games of his career as a midfielder, Angelus compiled 23 goals and 27 assists. In his last 23 games as an attackman, he amassed 28 goals and 52 assists.
Eager to contribute in some fashion, Angelus said he didn’t object to former coach Dave Pietramala’s decision to start him in the midfield. But he acknowledged that switching to the attack has been a more comfortable fit.
“I think it did take some time,” he said. “I think by the end of the year, I still wasn’t fully there yet. But this past year, having a whole fall and spring getting coached on it and watching film, it really helped me. I’ve definitely been able to change my game.”
At 5 foot 9 and 165 pounds, Angelus might not have the prototypical size of today’s attackmen. But graduate student attackman Garrett Degnon pointed out that his teammate is blessed with a quickness that helps him evade some of the top defensemen.
“There’s a lot of times when he’s dodging against a defender, and he’s not even getting touched,” Degnon said. “A lot of attackmen are physical and like to soak checks and don’t mind contact, but Jacob’s game is really making his move early and being light on his feet and not allowing the defender to touch him at all. It sounds kind of ridiculous, but there’s a lot of plays that Jacob makes where he probably doesn’t even get touched.”
Crawley, who played from 2014 to 2017 at Johns Hopkins, characterized Angelus as the offense’s quarterback, the field general who sets things in motion either behind the cage or from goal-line extended. He compared Angelus favorably with former attackman Wells Stanwick, who ranks second in program history in career assists (124) and is one of only three players to record 40 or more assists in two seasons.
“Wells Stanwick was probably one of the smartest players I had ever played with as a ball carrier and as a distributor,” Crawley said. “He wanted us as a group to just put the ball in the back of the net. So I see a lot of similarities between the two of them and the way they see things two or three steps ahead and the way that they feed and the way that they’re patient.”
Angelus is quick to credit Crawley for developing schemes that have put him and his teammates in advantageous situations.
“I think I’m just a product of the offense and the guys we have around me and the positions that Coach Crawley puts me in,” he said. “If I’m the guy that needs to facilitate and pass the ball to the shooters, then I’ll be that guy. I know my skill set, and I know my teammates’ skill sets, and we work around that until we’re comfortable.”
Angelus will graduate next week with a bachelor’s in political science. He said he will attend graduate school in pursuit of a master’s in global security politics and spend his final year of eligibility with the Blue Jays.
But his current focus is trying to get Johns Hopkins back to championship weekend for a shot at what would be the program’s 10th NCAA title, which would tie Syracuse for the most in Division I history.