May 2, 2015

Box Score

COLLEGE PARK, MD - There was a time when the University of Maryland's Byrd Stadium was kryptonite to the Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team. For seven straight years from 1995-2001 the Blue Jays' season ended in Byrd with a loss.

Few current members of the team likely remember any of that part of the program's history; that's ok, they're busy writing their own history as the Blue Jays won for the third time in eight days at Byrd - this one a 13-6 victory over Ohio State in the inaugural Big Ten Men's Lacrosse Championship game Saturday night - to seal a spot in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

After building a three-goal halftime lead, the Blue Jays methodically pulled away from a Buckeye team that had topped them 15-12 just five weeks ago with a six-goal run that covered just over the first 16 minutes of the second half and pushed a 6-3 lead to 12-3 with 13:39 to play.

Junior Holden Cattoni, who finished with three goals and one assist, bookended the six-goal run with an extra-man goal just 37 seconds into the third quarter and a left-handed runner from the middle of the field 81 seconds into the fourth.

In between those goals, the Blue Jays got goals from Joel Tinney, John Crawley, Ryan Brown and Shack Stanwick in the final 12 minutes of a third quarter that saw Hopkins outshoot the Buckeyes 13-5, grab 8-of-12 ground balls and force five turnovers.

By the time the Buckeyes broke their scoreless drought of more than 25 minutes on a Ryan Hunter goal with 6:57 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Blue Jays had built their nine-goal lead and all but assured themselves of their national-record 43rd appearance in the NCAAs.

The window dressing at the end included Brown's second of the night and the only goals of the game by Jesse King and Carter Brown for Ohio State. In the earlier win over the Blue Jays, King and Carter Brown combined for 11 goals.

Hopkins got out to a 4-0 lead at the end of the first quarter on the strength of four different goal-scorers. Junior Kelton Black's first career goal jump-started the game-opening run with 10:39 to play as he scored in transition, while a Cody Radziewicz goal just under two minutes later pushed the lead to 2-0. When Connor Reed and Crawley added unassisted tallies in the final 3:04, Hopkins had its four-goal margin and had shutout an opponent in the first quarter for the first time since the season-opener against UMBC.

While the four goals were a welcome sight, it was the play of senior goalie Eric Schneider that was the real difference-maker for the Blue Jays as he recorded six saves on 13 Buckeye shots in the opening 15 minutes.

Ohio State hopped back in the game quickly in the second quarter as Dave Planning and JT Bluhaugh scored unassisted goals in a span of just over 90 seconds early in the quarter to make it 4-2.

As quickly the original four-goal lead was halved, it was back as Cattoni and Wells Stanwick scored consecutive goals just 70 seconds apart to give the Blue Jays a 6-2 lead with just over eight minutes remaining before halftime.

Ohio State's John Kelly closed out the scoring late in the second quarter as he was on the back end of some good ball movement and blew one home to account for the 6-3 score at the half.

Any hopes for an Ohio State comeback were dashed early in the third quarter as the Cattoni extra-man goal and the Tinney unassisted strike a short time later gave Hopkins a five-goal lead that eventually became nine. Not long after that, the Blue Jays were hoisting the first-ever conference championship trophy in school history and making plans for Sunday night's NCAA Tournament selection show, which will air live on ESPNU at 9 pm.

Wells Stanwick, who was named the tournament MVP, led the Blue Jays with one goal and four assists, while Cattoni (3g, 1a), Brown (2g), Crawley (2g), Shack Stanwick (1g, 1a) and Cody Radziewicz (1g, 1a) also added multi-point games.

While the balanced scoring and Schneider's 11-save performance were the headliners, the stat line of senior Michael Pellegrino was just as impressive. Pellegrino had six caused turnovers and five ground balls to fuel a defense that also included strong efforts from close defensemen Nick Fields, John Kelly and Nikhon Schuler.

King and Carter Brown paced the Ohio State offense with one goal and one assist, but the Buckeyes scored on just 6-of-37 shots, lost the ground ball battle 30-20 and never found a rhythm after being held scoreless for the first 17:06 of the game.

NOTES: Ryan Brown's two goals pushed his season total to 54, which breaks the Johns Hopkins single-season record of 52, which was originally set by Jeff Cook in 1981 and matched by Terry Riordan in 1995 · Brown also extended his goal-scoring streak to 31 game · Wells Stanwick extended his point-scoring streak to 34 games and he has nine goals and 17 assists during JHU's current five-game winning streak · Joining Stanwick on the All-Tournament Team from Johns Hopkins were Eric Schneider, Holden Cattoni and Michael Pellegrino.

- 30 -