April 24, 2004

Box Score

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Rarely does a game that receives as much pre-game hype as Saturday's men's lacrosse matchup between top-ranked Johns Hopkins and second-ranked Navy live up to the advance billing. The Blue Jays' thrilling, 10-9 overtime victory over the Midshipmen in front of 18,694 at Navy Marine Corps Stadium did. And then some.

Senior attackman Conor Ford (Baltimore, MD/St. Paul's) scored his career-high-tying fifth goal of the game with just 3.8 seconds remaining in the first overtime to lift the Blue Jays to the 10-9 come-from-behind victory. Ford, whose only previous five-goal game came against Navy as a freshman, bounced home a shot just inside the far post off a perfect pass from junior midfielder Matt Rewkowski (Bethpage, NY/Bethpage) from behind the goal to lift the Blue Jays to their 30th consecutive victory over Navy and fifth win this season over a team ranked in the top five in the nation at the time of the game. The Blue Jays also won for the 16th straight time in the month of April and improved to 42-1 in April since the beginning of the 1997 season. The crowd was the second largest regular season crowd in college lacrosse history.

Hopkins carried a 6-3 lead into halftime and had several early scoring chances in the third quarter, but the Mids used a stunning 6-1 run to turn the three-goal deficit into a 9-7 advantage with just over five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. Freshman Billy Looney's unassisted goal with 11:14 remaining in the third made it 6-4 and the Blue Jays maintained that lead for over nine minutes before sophomore Steve Looney added an unassisted goal of his own with 1:55 remaining in the period to make it 6-5.

The Blue Jays extended the lead to 7-5 as Ford scored his third goal of the game with just one second remaining in the third period. Senior Kevin Boland (Jessup, MD/Gilman) assisted on the goal; the first of three Ford would score in the final 48 seconds of a quarter or overtime.

Navy's Ben Bailey and Joe Bossi appeared to give the Mids the cushion they would needed as both scored twice in a 4-0 Navy run that took just 3:51 during the middle of the fourth quarter. Bailey scored the first and third goals of the run and Bossi added the second and fourth with his final tally coming in transition and just 16 seconds after Bailey's second goal.

Johns Hopkins junior Lou Braun (Upper Arlington, OH/Upper Arlington) won the ensuing faceoff and picked up the first assist of his career when he fed Kyle Harrison (Baltimore, MD/Friends) for Harrison's third goal of the game with 4:42 remaining to make it 9-8. Navy had an opportunity to seal the game with an extra-man goal late in the game when Blue Jay goalie Scott Smith (Wilton, CT/Wilton) drew a one-minute slashing penalty with 2:41 remaining. However, the Blue Jays fought off the man-down situation and forced overtime with an extra-man goal of their own with 48 seconds remaining. Navy was called for too many players on the field and Boland fed Ford for the fourth time in the game as Ford beat Navy goalie Matt Russell with a low-to-high riser to force overtime.

Both teams had opportunities to win the game in overtime as JHU outshot the Mids, 4-3 in the extra session. Russell came up with two point-blank saves on JHU's Kyle Barrie (Narberth, PA/The Haverford School) before the Blue Jays got the final possession and worked the ball to Ford, who found the only opening there was and bounced the winner past Russell from the doorstep.

Navy jumped to an early 2-1 lead as Bailey and Ian Dingman sandwiched goals around Harrison's first of the day in the first quarter. The Blue Jays then used a 5-1 run in the second quarter to sprint to the 6-3 halftime lead. Ford opened and closed the run, which also included goals by Barrie, Harrison and Boland. Only Dingman's second goal of the game kept the Blue Jays from shutting out the Mids in the second quarter.

Ford's five-goal effort was the first for a Blue Jay this season. Boland's four assists and five points were both one shy of his career high, while Harrison's three goals were also just one shy of his career high. Braun enjoyed the finest game of his career as he won 10-of-12 faceoffs and added four ground balls to go along with the first point of his career. The Blue Jays won 13-of-21 faceoffs against the team that entered the game ranked number one in the nation in faceoff winning percentage.

Navy got three goals from Bailey, two goals and one assist from Dingman and two goals from Bossi. Russell was solid -- at times spectacular -- in goal as he registered 13 saves for the Midshipmen, who won the ground ball war, 40-34, but surrendered three extra-man goals to the Blue Jays and failed to capitalize on the final possession of regulation and three possessions in overtime.

#1 Johns Hopkins (9-1) 1-5-1-2-1/10

#2 Navy (10-2) 2-1-2-4-0/9

Goals: J: Ford-5, Harrison-3, Barrie, Boland N: Bailey-3, Dingman-2, Bossi-2, Looney, B.-, Looney, S. Assists: J: Boland-4, Braun, Byrne, Rewkowski. Saves: J: Smith-6, Schwartzman-0. N: Russell-13. EMO: J: 3-for-7. N: 1-for-4. Attendance: 18,694

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