BALTIMORE, MD – The second-ranked Loyola Maryland men's lacrosse team scored the first six goals of the second half to turn a 9-6 halftime lead into a 15-6 advantage and home-standing Johns Hopkins never got close than six in the final 20 minutes of the game as the Greyhounds took an 18-12 decision Saturday afternoon at Homewood Field.  A crowd of 4,630 saw Loyola improve to 2-0, while the Blue Jays slip to 0-2.
 
Loyola had a 9-4 lead late in the second quarter, but back-to-back goals by Johns Hopkins senior Kyle Marr in a 10-second span late in the period trimmed the deficit to 9-6 at the half.  Marr had a chance to make it 9-7 as the second quarter clock expired, but his last-second try was just wide.
 
Any momentum the Blue Jays had grabbed with the late first-half flurry was gone quickly in the third quarter as five different Greyhounds combined to score six goals in the first 9:28 of the period to give Loyola the 15-6 lead.
 
Kevin Lindley opened the spree just 55 seconds into the third when he shoveled one home from in tight off a nice feed from Chase Scanlan.  Scanlan's goal less than two minutes later was followed by strikes from John Duffy, Lindley, Alex McGovern and P.J. Brown over the next seven minutes to account for the scoring in the 6-0 run.
 
Johns Hopkins scored twice in a 44-second span late in the third to trim the deficit to 15-8 and later got consecutive goals in a 49-second span from Marr and junior Cole Williams to make it 17-11 with just under five minutes left in the fourth quarter, but Jacob Stover's four, fourth-quarter saves were more than enough to hold off the Blue Jays.
 
Loyola had used a 5-0 run to turn an early 1-0 deficit into a 5-1 lead late in the opening period.  At it would turn out, Johns Hopkins would never get closer than three after the 'Hounds built the early four-goal margin.
 
A game-opening goal by Johns Hopkins sophomore Brett Baskin was quickly answered by the five-goal Loyola run.  Lindley scored the final two goals in the spree, which also included tallies by Scanlan, Duffy and Logan Devereaux.
 
Johns Hopkins scored three of the next five goals in the game with freshman Joey Epstein scoring twice and Marr adding the first of his five on the day to help the Blue Jays pull within 7-4 early in the second period.
 
Back-to-back goals by Pat Spencer – which came more than six minutes apart – built the 9-4 lead late in the second quarter.  Marr's two late second-quarter goals came shortly after Spencer's second to give the Blue Jays the momentum entering halftime, but Lindley's first goal of the third quarter jump-started the game-deciding run for the Greyhounds.
 
Spencer led Loyola with three goals and four assists, while Scanlan (4g, 2a) Lindley (4g) and Duffy (3g) combined for 11 goals and two assists.  Stover posted 12 saves in goal for Loyola, which had slight edges in shots (42-41) and ground balls (31-28).
 
Marr paced Johns Hopkins with five goals and one assist, while Epstein matched his six-point effort with a three-goal, three-assist effort.  Baskin (1g, 1a) was Hopkins' only other multi-point producer.
 
Freshman Matt Narewski saw the most extensive action of his young career and responded by winning 17-of-28 faceoffs with 11 ground balls for the Blue Jays.
 
Johns Hopkins will return to action on Saturday, February 23 when the Blue Jays travel to North Carolina to take on the Tar Heels.
 
Notes:  Marr extended his goal-scoring streak to 16 games and now has 85 goals and 41 assists in his career … he is tied with A.J. Haugen (1997-2000) for 30^th on Johns Hopkins' career goal-scoring list • Epstein's six points are the most by a Johns Hopkins freshman since Shack Stanwick had six (4g, 2a) against Syracuse in the 2015 NCAA Quarterfinals.