May 19, 2002
Johns Hopkins junior midfielder Adam Doneger scored his career-high fifth goal of the game with 2:41 remaining in the first overtime to lift the top-seeded Blue Jays to a 13-12 victory over eighth-seeded Massachusetts in the NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Quarterfinals. The win is the ninth straight for the Blue Jays, who improve to 12-1 with the victory. The Minutemen had a two-game winning streak snapped and finish the season, 12-4.
Johns Hopkins led 12-10 with less than a minute to play, only to have UMass score twice in the final 25 seconds of regulation to force overtime. Kevin Leveille's third goal of the game with 25 seconds left in the fourth quarter drew the Minutemen to within 12-11. UMass won the ensuing faceoff and Chris Fiore forced overtime with an unassisted goal, his fourth of the game, with just 12 seconds remaining. Fiore scored for about eight yards out as he was falling to the ground.
Johns Hopkins freshman Kyle Harrison won the opening faceoff in overtime and the Blue Jays quickly called timeout. After working the ball around several times, Doneger dodged from the top of the box where UMass defenseman Matt McFarland forced him to redodge. Doneger got a step on McFarland on the redodge and beat goalie Bill Schell for the game-winner.
The ending was setup by two dramatically different halves. Johns Hopkins sprinted out to a 6-0 lead midway though the second quarter and led 8-2 at halftime. Freshman Kyle Barrie and Doneger both scored in the first minute of the game to stake the Blue Jays to a quick 2-0 lead. Junior Tim Muir pushed the lead to 3-0 with his first goal of the season with just six seconds remaining in the first quarter. Barrie's second goal of the game and tallies by Harrison and sophomore Conor Ford gave the Blue Jays the 6-0 advantage.
Fiore and Leveille scored to draw the Minutemen within 6-2 with just over a minute to play in the second quarter, but the Blue Jays added goals by Doneger and junior Bobby Benson in the final 20 seconds to push the lead to 8-2 at the half.
The Minutemen proceeded to outscore the Blue Jays, 8-0 over the first 22:36 of the second half to take a stunning 10-8 lead with less than eight minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. Fiore scored back-to-back goals in the first five minutes of the third quarter to trim the deficit to 8-4. Don Little then scored back-to-back goals in the span of just 1:10 to make it 8-6. A Jeff Zywicki goal with 2:52 remaining in the third quarter made it 8-7 and Zywicki tied it at 8-8 with an unassisted goal just 26 seconds into the fourth quarter.
Massachusetts took its first lead of the game on Little's third goal of the game just 12 seconds after Zywicki tied it and Leveille's second goal of the game pushed the lead to 10-8 just over a minute later. The Blue Jays finally broke through with their first goal of the second half with 7:24 remaining in the fourth quarter when Barrie scored off an assist from sophomore Kevin Boland. Ford tied the game at 10-10 with his second goal of the game at the 5:50 mark, and back-to-back goals by Doneger in a span of just 36 seconds less than two minutes later gave the Blue Jays a 12-10 lead. Hopkins killed most of the final four minutes of the game, but an errant pass with 44 seconds remaining gave UMass the ball. That set the stage for the wild finish, which resulted in Hopkins' sixth one-goal win of the year.
Doneger led the way with his career-best five goals, while Barrie added three goals and Ford two. Benson tallied a goal and three assists and senior Nick Murtha registered 18 saves in goal for the Blue Jays, who were outshot, 47-27, but won the ground ball war, 36-23 and controlled 17 of 28 faceoffs.
Fiore led UMass with four goals and one assist, while Leveille and Little each added three goals. Zywicki chipped in with the two goals and freshman Bill Schell posted four saves for the Minutemen, whose eight straight goals were the most consecutive goals allowed by Johns Hopkins all season.
Johns Hopkins advances to the NCAA Semifinals, where the Blue Jays will meet Princeton at 11:30 am next Saturday.
Johns Hopkins versus Massachusetts Box Score in PDF Format
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