Oct. 10, 2009

Box Score

CARLISLE, PA - For the second consecutive week the Johns Hopkins football team needed a late-game drive and touchdown to seal a crucial Centennial Conference victory on the road. For the second consecutive week, the Blue Jays turned to senior running back Andrew Kase, who rushed nine times for 54 yards and what proved to be the game-clinching touchdown as the Blue Jays knocked off previously unbeaten and 25th-ranked Dickinson, 23-12, at Biddle Field Saturday afternoon.

The win is the fifth straight for the Blue Jays, who improve to 5-1 overall and 4-0 in the Centennial Conference. Coupled with a 21-14 win for Franklin & Marshall over Ursinus earlier today, Johns Hopkins takes over sole possession of first place in the Centennial Conference.

The game was also the 200th for Jim Margraff as the head coach at Johns Hopkins and he improves to 124-73-3 in 20 seasons at Homewood.

The Blue Jays led 16-12 early in the fourth quarter, but Dickinson pieced together a nifty drive that moved the Red Devils from their own 44 to the Blue Jay 29. However, senior Colin Wixted intercepted an Ian Mitchell pass at the JHU 18 and returned it 13 yards to the 31-yard line.

Hopkins took over with 9:05 remaining in the fourth quarter and put the ball in Kase's hands nine times on a 10-play drive that took 5:41 off the clock and was punctuated by a 14-yard scoring run by the senior. Only a 10-yard pass from sophomore Hewitt Tomlin to Sam Wernick and an offsides penalty against the Devils interrupted Kase's string of attempts.

Dickinson led 3-0 after Gordon Craig capped a 15-play, 69-yard game-opening drive that took more than seven minutes off the clock, but the Devils' lead was short-lived as Tomlin hit junior Tucker Michels in stride on JHU's second play from scrimmage for a 68-yard touchdown pass to give the Blue Jays a 7-3 lead. The Blue Jays would never trail again, but they couldn't quite put the Devils away either.

Lachman and Craig traded field goals in the final eight minutes of the second quarter to make it 10-6, but Lachman drilled one off the upright on the final play of the first half to leave the Blue Jays with just the four-point lead.

Michels fueled a seven-play, 68-yard drive to open the second half as his 53-yard reception gave the Blue Jays a first-and-goal from the Dickinson one-yard line. Kase went over three plays later to give JHU a 16-6 lead, but the extra-point hit the upright and bounced back to leave it a 10-point game.

Craig sliced the deficit to 16-12 as he was true from 27 and 34 yards in the final 5:08 of the third quarter, but Dickinson, which entered the game averaging 35.8 points per game, never found the end zone against the Blue Jay defense, which forced a punt and came up with two interceptions on Dickison's final three drives of the game. In addition to Wixted's interception, junior Mike Todisco intercepted Mitchell's last attempt of the game at the Blue Jay 20-yard line and Hopkins was able to run out the final 2:30 to seal its fourth straight win at Biddle Field.

The Dickinson defense had done a nice job containing Kase until the final drive and those 54 yards pushed him to 116 yards on 29 carries with the two touchdowns. His 125 all-purpose yards pushed him past 4,000 for his career (4,115), while he also moved into fourth place in career rushing yards by a collegiate running back in the state of Maryland (3,667) with his 116-yard effort.

Tomlin was 20-of-33 for 270 yards with one touchdown and one interception. The 200-yard passing game was his fourth straight - which ties a Johns Hopkins record. Michels enjoyed his finest game of the season as he had four receptions for a career-high 141 yards and the one touchdown. Wixted paced the Blue Jay defense that held Dickinson 23 points under its season scoring average as he posted seven tackles, including 1.5 for losses and one sack, added the interception and forced a fumble.

Mitchell was his normal do-it-all self as he was 16-of-32 for 202 yards with the two interceptions through the air and rushed 14 times for 60 yards. Joe Sandoe was his favorite target as he had seven receptions for 116 yards. Pat McNeal posted a team-high nine tackles to lead the way defensively for Dickinson, which had a seven-game winning streak snapped with the loss.

Johns Hopkins returns to Homewood Field next Saturday when the Blue Jays host Ursinus at 1 pm. Dickinson is off next week.

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