Oct. 31, 2009

Box Score

HUNTINGDON, PA - Johns Hopkins senior running back Andrew Kase rushed for 146 yards and a school-record tying four touchdowns in the first half to lead the visiting Blue Jays to a 58-7 victory at Juniata Saturday afternoon. The win is the third straight for the Blue Jays against Juniata and improves Hopkins' record to 6-2 overall and 5-1 in the Centennial Conference. Juniata slips to 1-8 overall and 1-6 in the Centennial.

With the win, Johns Hopkins head coach Jim Margraff notches his the 125th career victory. Already the all-time winningest coach in school history with a 125-74-3 record, he is just the second college football coach in Maryland state history to win 125 games. Eddie Hurt, who won 174 games at Morgan State from 1929-59, is the only other football coach in state history to win 125 games.

Kase scored on runs of five, seven, 26 and 25 yards in the first 23 minutes of the game as the Blue Jays erased an early 7-0 deficit with a modern era (since 1955) school record 44 points before halftime to take a 44-7 halftime lead. It is the first time Johns Hopkins has scored 50 or more points since September 29, 2000, when the Blue Jays beat Gettysburg 54-13. The 58 points are the most scored by JHU since September 19, 1997, when Hopkins beat Swarthmore 73-0.

After Juniata opened the scoring with a 71-yard touchdown pass from Alex Snyder to Matt Dunker on the Eagles' first play of the game, the Blue Jays took over and scored on six of seven first-half possessions and added a special teams score to take the commanding halftime lead.

Kase sandwiched scoring runs of five and seven yards around a 23-yard field goal by Alex Lachman in a seven-minute span in the first quarter to give the Blue Jays a 16-7 lead after 15 minutes of action.

The Blue Jays needed less than half that amount of time to push the lead to 37-7 as Kase added his 26 and 25-yard scoring runs around a 13-yard blocked punt return by freshman Adam Schweyer in a span of just 3:01 to take the 30-point lead.

The Blue Jay defense forced three first-half turnovers, all of which were turned into touchdowns. The final turnover came inside Blue Jay territory late in the half when sophomore Mike Milano intercepted a pass at the 11-yard line and returned it to the 17 with 2:45 remaining. The Blue Jays needed just 95 seconds to go 83 yards and capped off their final first-half scoring drive with a 17-yard pass from Hewitt Tomlin to D.J. Hartigan. The touchdown was set up by a 51-yard run by freshman Jonathan Rigaud.

Hopkins added fourth-quarter scoring runs by Tyler Porco and Nick Fazio to close out the scoring.

Johns Hopkins totaled 336 of its 498 yards of total offense in the first half as Kase's 146 yards and all 125 of Tomlin's passing yards came before intermission. Kase tied the record for rushing touchdowns in a game that he had previously shared with three other players. In addition, his four scores give him a school-record 43 career overall touchdowns. He had entered the game tied for first in overall touchdowns with Bill Stromberg, who scored 39 from 1978-81. For good measure, Kase added the extra point after Porco's five-yard touchdown run midway through the fourth quarter to give him 25 points in the game.