UMBC

Baltimore—Tenth-ranked Johns Hopkins (2-1) held off a furious late rally, and upended host UMBC (3-1), 14-11 before 931 chilled fans at UMBC Stadium.

Senior midfielder Alex Hopmann (Annapolis, Md.) scored a career high four goals, including a pair in a late 5-0 surge by the hosts. UMBC sliced a 13-6 deficit with 11:28 remaining to 13-11 on Hopmann’s final goal with 3:34 to play. The Retrievers did get an additional possession down the stretch, but senior attackman Ryan Smith (Fallston, Md.) could not get off a shot and JHU maintained possession for most of the final two minutes and finalized the score on a goal by Kyle Wharton with one second remaining.

UMBC senior midfielder Peet Poillon (Cranberry Township, Pa.) added two goals and two assists and junior attackman Chris Jones (Martinsville, N.J.) scored a pair of goals for the Retrievers.

But Johns Hopkins dominated the face-off circle, winning 12 of 13 first half draws. After Smith scored the game’s first goal for UMBC at the 12:55 mark of the first quarter, the Blue Jays’ Matt Dolente answered seven seconds later. After winning the draw, he burst straight down the middle of the middle of the field and evened the game at 1-1. Hopkins added two goals in the final 1:20 of the quarter to lead, 3-1, after 15 minutes.

The game opened up in the second quarter, as nine goals were scored. Hopmann scored UMBC’s third man-up goal of the quarter with 21 seconds remaining in the first half to trim the hosts’ deficit to 7-5, but JHU answered as the Blue Jays’ won the battle for a loose ball on the face-off and junior attackman Chris Boland scored front right in front of the cage after a feed from Kyle Wharton.  

Jones opened the third quarter with a goal to bring UMBC to within 8-6 less than two minutes into the period, but Hopkins again quickly answered that score just 78 seconds later on a Kyle Wharton goal. That triggered a 5-0 Blue Jay run which culminated on junior midfielder Michael Kimmel’s third goal of the game with 11:28 to play and gave the visitors a seemingly insurmountable seven-goal bulge.

Boland led JHU with two goals and two assists, while Kimmel and junior attackman Steven Boyle each scored three goals.

UMBC senior goalkeeper Jeremy Blevins made nine saves, while Blue Jay netminder Michael Gvozden recorded eight for his side. Hopkins outshot UMBC, 35-32, but did the real damage in face-offs (19-7) and ground balls (38-20).

The loss snapped UMBC’s 15-game home winning streak. The Retrievers have won 20 of their last 22 home games, with both losses occurring to the Blue Jays (2007, 2009).

UMBC hosts fifth-ranked Princeton on Friday evening at 8:00 p.m.