Box Score

VILLANOVA, PA - The fifth-ranked Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team outscored host Villanova 4-1 in the first 11 minutes of the fourth quarter to turn a 9-8 lead into a 13-9 advantage and the Blue Jays went on to a 13-10 victory at snowy Villanova Stadium Saturday afternoon. The Blue Jays move to 2-1 on the year with the victory, while Villanova drops its season opener to start 0-1.

The tenuous one-goal lead entering the fourth quarter was up to three in less than 65 seconds as Wilkins Dismuke scored off a slick-field-enduced scramble from the slot. Dismuke came up with a ground ball and shoveled the ball past Villanova goalie Dan Willis from in tight. Senior Wells Stanwick made it 11-8 just 17 seconds later as he was on the back end of a scramble situation and went in alone and beat Wills from seven yards out.

An extra-man goal by Christian Cuccinello with 9:35 to play sliced the deficit to 11-9, but sophomore John Crawley got his hands free on a dodge from behind the goal and fired one to the top shelf and junior Ryan Brown capped his four-goal day with an underhanded laser from 10 yards out with just over four minutes left on the clock. A unassisted goalie by Danny Seibel with 20 seconds remaining closed the scoring to account for the 13-10 final score.

The first 30 minutes solved nothing as the teams went to halftime knotted at 5-5 with Villanova bookending the half with two-goal spurts around a 5-1 Johns Hopkins run.

The Blue Jays trailed 2-0 less the three minutes into the game before Shack Stanwick and Brown sandwiched goals around a Jack Curran goal for Villanova in the final nine minutes of the opening period to make it 3-2 Villanova at the end of the first period.

After scoring twice in the opening 15 minutes, the Blue Jays needed less than three minutes of the second quarter to score three times and grab a 5-3 lead. Holden Cattoni scored from in tight on the extra-man at the 13:20 mark and Brown added his second of the game 29 seconds later in transition to give the Blue Jays their first lead of the game. When freshman Patrick Fraser smoked home an extra-man goal to the top shelf 45 seconds later, the Blue Jays had a two-goal lead and the momentum.

However, the Wildcats would score the final two goals of the half as they turned a failed clear into the second goal of the game from Seibel three minutes after Fraser's goal and Cuccinello got to the middle of the field after his defender slipped in the snow and beat Eric Schneider from eight yards out to force the 5-5 halftime tie.

The Blue Jays got a little separation by scoring three of the first four goals of the second half to grab an 8-6 lead. Wells Stanwick, Brown and Cattoni all scored in the opening six minutes of the third period with only a marker by Sean Cerrone during that time for the Wildcats. Wells Stanwick got the assist on Cattoni's goal, which was Hopkins' fourth extra-man goal of the game and gave the Blue Jays the 8-6 lead.

Cerrone and Kurtis Naslonski wrapped goals around the second of the day by Shack Stanwick in the final seven minutes of the third quarter to account for the 9-8 score at the end of three. Cerrone had time and room from 12 yards to fire one home, while Naslonski ripped a side-armed shot home on the run. Shack Stanwick's goal came on a perfect cross-crease pass from brother Wells Stanwick and he flipped it into the open net.

That set the stage for the fourth-quarter spree by the Blue Jays that lifted them to their eighth straight win against the Wildcats.

Wells Stanwick led the Blue Jays with two goals and five assists for seven points. The effort marks his 18th career game with four or more points. Brown ran his goal-scoring streak to 19 games with his four-goal effort today, while Shack Stanwick (2g, 1a), Cattoni (2g) and Crawley (1g, 1a) all registered multi-point games as well.

A key for the Blue Jays was the play on faceoffs, where Drew Kennedy (9-of-10) and Kevin O'Toole (9-of-13) fueled a 20-of-28 performance at the X for Johns Hopkins.

Seibel (3g, 1a) and Cerrone (2g, 2a) most notched four-point efforts for the Wildcats, who got eight saves in goal from Willis in the second half after starter Greg Stamatov posted four in the opening 30 minutes.

Johns Hopkins held a 40-34 advantage in shots and grabbed 32-of-49 groundballs in the game.

The Blue Jays will return to action on Saturday, February 21 when they travel to North Carolina to take on the Tar Heels.

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