Nov. 17, 2007
CAMBRIDGE, MA - The Bucknell Bison defeated Johns Hopkins for the third consecutive time this season, winning 11-8 in the second round of the Eastern Championships at Harvard University Saturday afternoon. Hopkins will now play Iona in the seventh-place game at 9:00 am on Sunday.
Hopkins appeared primed to down Bucknell in the first three minutes as the Blue Jays won the sprint and junior Peter Davis (Riverside, CT/Greenwich) finished off a pass from junior Josh Kratz (Lansdale, PA/North Penn) 22 seconds into the game. However, the Bison came right back, when Josh Sunday knotted the score at 1-1 just 17 seconds later.
Senior All-American and two-time Division III Player of the Year Sean McCreery (Pleasant Hill, CA/De La Salle) gave the Blue Jays back the lead with 5:36 to play. Jason Rechel recorded a hat trick over the next 3:32 to push Bucknell ahead 4-2. McCreery cut the deficit in half with 2:04 to play in the first, lobbing a shot of Bison goalie Miles Gihuly. But a goal from Richie Hyden made it a 5-3 game after the first.
Sunday and Gabriel Heiber scored back-to-back goals for the Bison to open the second, giving Bucknell a 7-3 lead. Senior Chris Hemmerle (Harleysville, PA/Souderton) found the cage at 3:29 followed by a penalty shot from McCreery with just seven seconds remaining in the half and Bucknell took a 7-5 lead into the break.
Hopkins came out and trimmed the deficit to just one with a goal from Hemmerle, but Mark Masterson answered for the Bison and it was 8-6 at the end of three. Sophomore Kyle Gertridge (Palo Alto, CA/Gunn) scored to open the fourth to make it an 8-7 game, but it was all Bucknell the rest of the way.
Junior Chris Hutchens (Granite Bay, CA/Bellarmine Prep) and freshman Jeremy Selbst (Old Greenwich, CT/Greenwich) each had four saves in the cage for Hopkins. Gihuly finished with six saves for the Bison. McCreery finished with four goals, giving him a career-high 91 for the season. He owns three of the top-four single season goal totals in program history.
Bucknell goals: Rechel (3), Sunday (2), Hyden (2), Masterson, Heiber, Roslyn, Lampley Johns Hopkins goals: McCreery (4), Hemmerle (2), Gertridge, Davis
