April 10, 2004

Box Score

DURHAM, NC -- Johns Hopkins junior midfielder Kyle Harrison scored two goals, including a man-down goal late in the third quarter, and the Blue Jays held off a final psuh by 13th-ranked Duke in the closing seconds as the Blue Jays picked up a 6-5 victory over the Blue Devils. Hopkins improves to 7-1 with the win, while the Blue Devils dropped their fourth straight and slip to 4-5.

Duke jumped to a 2-0 lead on back-to-back goals by Bret Thompson and Lee Skandalaris in the first five minutes of the game, but the Devils wouldn't score again until late in the third quarter (a span of 37:06) and the Blue Jays would score five times to take what appeared to be a commanding 5-2 lead.

Freshman Jake Byrne got the Blue Jays going with his seventh goal of the season off an assist from junior Kyle Barrie with 1:27 remaining in the first quarter. The Blue Jays would take that lead into the second quarter, but could have led by much more if it weren't for the efforts of Duke goalie Aaron Fenton, who registered eight of his 20 saves in the first period.

Barrie and junior Peter LeSueur scored back-to-back goals in a span of 65 seconds early in the second quarter and Harrison's first goal of the game with 4:33 remaining in the period gave the Blue Jays a 4-2 lead at halftime.

Senior Conor Ford pushed the lead to 5-2 with an extra-man goal off an assist from senior Kevin Boland at the 11:04 mark of the third quarter and the score remained that way for the next seven minutes. Then, things got interesting.

K.J Sauer scored an extra-man goal for Duke with 3:40 remaining in the third quarter as the Blue Devils capitalized on a three-man advantage. However, Harrison won the ensuing faceoff on a loose-ball hold and went right to goal, where he beat Fenton to give the Blue Jays a 6-3 lead with JHU's second man-down goal of the season.

Peter Lamade and Matt Zash both scored unassisted goals in the final 1:45 of the third quarter to pull the Devils within 6-5, but neither team would score in the final quarter. Both teams had opporunities to score in the fourth quarter as JHU took 10 shots and Duke fired off seven, but both goalies came up with four saves to keep the opposition off the board.

Duke got two cracks at the Blue Jays in the final 20 seconds, but Thompson's shot was blocked by Benson Erwin and Zash's attempt (which actually went in the goal) came after the final horn sounded.

Harrison's two goals paced the Blue Jays, who also got one goal and one assist from Barrie. Smith registered seven saves as Hopkins held its 18th consecutive opponent to less than 10 goals.

Duke did not have anyone with more than one point, but Fenton's heroics in goal were nearly enough to pull off the upset.

Hopkins, which could jump back to the number one spot in the nation after top-ranked Maryland fell to Navy, 9-6 earlier today, will host the Terrapins next Saturday night at 8:00 pm. The game will be the 100th between the two schools.