Nov. 23, 2010

JHU-St. Francis Box Score in PDF Format

JHU-Fordham Box Score in PDF Format

JHU-Brown Box Score in PDF Format

LEWISBURG, PA - The Johns Hopkins water polo team closed out its season at the 2010 CWPA Eastern Championship at Bucknell last weekend. The Blue Jays finished sixth at the championship with a win over Fordham. Hopkins opened up against the top seed from the north, St. Francis, and nearly pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the season.

The Blue Jays went to the wire against the 13th-ranked Terriers, tying the match at 8-8 with 5:14 left in regulation, but St. Francis managed a goal by Bosko Stankovic with 3:55 on the clock to hold off Hopkins in the opening round. St. Francis, which went undefeated against East Coast competition during the regular season and Northern Division postseason, had all they could handle against the only team West of the California-Nevada border at the CWPA Eastern Championship that the Terriers did not play this season.

Leading 5-4 at halftime, the Blue Jays saw their advantage turn into a 7-5 hole midway through the third period as Stefan Gencic scored on a man-up chance at 6:28, Filip Sasic hammered in a natural goal at 4:50 and Alexandar Pantic netted a five-meter penalty shot at 4:02 to put the Terriers firmly in front. The Blue Jays began to chip away at the deficit immediately as sophomore Kielan Crow weaved through the Terriers' defense for a natural goal at 3:36 to inch within 7-6. SFC's margin evaporated as the Terriers were burned by a breakaway goal by sophomore Alex Whittam at 1:58 to knot the game at 7-to-7, but St. Francis went back in front with 24 ticks on the clock when Pantic beat the shot clock to go ahead 8-7.

Hopkins evened the board at 8-to-8 with 5:14 remaining in the fourth period when Whittam beat SFC goalie Igor Mladenovic for an advantage goal. However, the Terriers received the deciding strike by Stankovic with 3:55 on the clock for the 9-8 final score.

The game was tight throughout the 32 minutes of action as neither team was able to build a lead of more than two goals as the Blue Jays sought to shock the water polo world and put St. Francis into the consolation games on Saturday afternoon. JHU took the early lead in the contest as sophomore Ross Schofield cashed in a man-up chance at 5:09 of the first period, but the Terriers responded with a natural goals by Marko Gencic at 3:55 and 2:03 sandwiched around a five-meter penalty shot by Stefan Gencic at 3:25 to go ahead 3-1.

Whittam closed the gap to a single marker by the end of the first period as he lobbed a shot over Mladenovic's head with 1:40 remaining in the frame. St. Francis regained a two-goal lead just 2:52 into the second period as Stefan Gencic flipped in another marker at the 5:08 mark to make it 4-2. However, the Blue Jays dominated the remainder of the half with man-up (3:06) and even-strength (1:38) goals by Schofield to tie the game before Crow accepted a pass from freshman Stephen Kingery, turned and deposited a shot into the back of the cage to stake Hopkins to a 5-4 scoring advantage through a half of play.

Between the pipes, Mladenovic turned aside eight shots to pick up the victory. For Hopkins, senior Jeremy Selbst, who played the game with a broken nose suffered at the Southern Division Championship, turned aside 10 shots to keep his team in the game.

Hopkins then faced Fordham in the consolation semifinals on Saturday and took an 11-8 win behind a five-goal performance from Schofield. In a game that featured 24 ejections, eight advantage/penalty goals, 22 saves and two cards, the story of the game was the play of Schofield who took over command of the contest in the second period to help stave off a Rams comeback bid.

Hopkins never trailed in the game opening up a 3-1 lead in the first period. Schofield opened the scoring 45 seconds into the contest as he rifled home a shot at the 7:15 mark to put the Blue Jays in front to stay. Fordham tied the game 30 seconds later when Ali Arat whipped in a behind-the-back shot off an assist from Alex at 6:45. Johns Hopkins closed the period with back-to-back special teams scores as senior John Barrett weaved a man-up blast from across the pool off an assist by Whittam at 4:10 before Crow converted on a five-meter penalty shot with 56 seconds remaining for a 3-1 lead.

The margin expanded to 5-1 in the opening minutes of the second period as Schofield cashed in a five-meter penalty shot at 7:20 and then lobbed a ball into the cage at 6:47 for the Blue Jays. Fordham climbed back into the contest with a 3-0 run fueled by back-to-back strikes by Mikey Edwards at 2:21 and 1:37 on the heels of a natural marker by Ryan Hultman with 3:53 showing on the clock to make it a 5-4 game.

However, Schofield completed his quarter-trick with another marker at 1:26 before Barrett accepted a long outlet pass from Selbst for his team's seventh goal of the half and a 7-4 scoring margin at halftime. The Rams again climbed back into the contest as Arat found the cage with a back-hand at 6:39 and tossed in a 6-on-5 score at 4:43 to move Fordham back to within one at 7-6. Hopkins and the Rams counterpunched throughout the remainder of the period as sophomore Eli Levitt scored at 4:24 for Hopkins, Powell pumped in a goal on a man-up opportunity at 2:20 for Fordham and sophomore Charlie Weintraub netted the eventual game-winner at 1:13 off another 6-on-5 chance to make it 9-7 through 24 minutes of play.

For the third period in a row, the Rams charged back into the game as Jake Bakas connected on a shot with 6:21 remaining in the fourth period to inch within 9-8. But, the Blue Jays received a pair of gifts from Victor Batista Medina who was whistled for a flagrant foul against Barrett which gave Hopkins a five-meter penalty shot and a man-up chance. Crow converted the five-meter at 2:38 immediately following the foul and, following an ejection on Fordham goalie Christian Flessner, Schofield hammered in the ensuing 6-on-5 chance at 2:18 for the 11-8 final score.

In cage, Flessner finished with nine stops for the Rams, while Selbst picked up the victory with a game-high 10 saves with a five-meter penalty block.

The win over Fordham, set up a meeting with Brown in the fifth-place match on Sunday, though Hopkins was forced to play without Whittam and Levitt after the pair suffered injuries in the Fordham match.

Svetozar Stefanovic scored five times to account for the winning margin as 20th-ranked Brown doubled-up Johns Hopkins 10-5 in the fifth-place match. The story of the game was Brown's ability to draw ejections and cash in on the chances as the Bears drew eight and converted on six, while Hopkins also drew eight but failed to put one in the back of the net.

Leading 5-4 at halftime, Brown outscored the Blue Jays 5-1 in the second half to roll to the victory and move to 2-0 against JHU in 2010 following a 10-9 victory in overtime during the regular season. Brown started the run with 3:51 left in the third period as Ryan Gladych finished a pass before James McNamara converted a 6-on-5 chance with 58 seconds remaining to make it 7-4.

The margin expanded to 8-4 to open the fourth period as Stefanovic wrapped a shot around the near post at the 5:44 mark. Hopkins broke-up the scoring spree at 4:38 with a strike by Crow, but the Bears came out of scoring hibernation at 4:15 with a man-up tally by Gordon Hood.

Corey Schwartz closed out the game and both Brown and JHU's seasons with another advantage score at 3:15 for the 10-5 final. Overall, Barrett and Schofield powered Johns Hopkins with pairs of goals in addition to Crow's tally. Schwartz tacked on a pair of scores for the Bears, with single markers by Hood, McNamara and Gladych accounting for all of Brown's offense not handled by Stefanovic.

In cage, Walter Shockley made seven saves to claim the win, while Selbst suffered the loss with 10 saves.