BALTIMORE, MD – The Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team never led Tuesday night's game against Mount St. Mary's while the clock was moving.  Conversely, the Mountaineers led for more than 57 minutes in regulation.
 
Still, it was a four-goal Johns Hopkins rally in the final 4:14 of regulation and a game-winning goal in overtime from a freshman named Owen Murphy that propelled the Blue Jays to a 13-12 victory over the Mount at Homewood Field.
                                                                                                                                                                                                            
Down by four after an extra-man goal by the Mountaineers' Matt Haggerty with just 5:35 remaining in regulation, the Blue Jays rallied – and the four-goal deficit was halved in just 11 seconds as Garrett Degnon and Kyle Prouty scored back-to-back goals just 11 ticks apart to turn what appeared to be a comfortable 12-8 Mount lead into a 12-10 margin with momentum now wearing the lighter shade of Blue.
 
The Blue Jays won the ensuing faceoff after Prouty's goal, but Dylan Furnback went low to save a shot from Evan Zinn with 3:26 on the clock.  Working on a clear, Furnback's outlet was picked off by Blue Jay senior Cole Williams, who went in alone and scored to make it 12-11.  After a Mount St. Mary's shot clock violation gave the Blue Jays possession, it was Williams sweeping to the middle and firing home the equalizer with 57 seconds remaining.
 
Overtime wasn't assured until Blue Jay goalie Ryan Darby stuffed Joe Bethke on the doorstep in the final five seconds of regulation to send the game to the extra period.
 
There, the Blue Jays had the first crack, but Furnback saved Brett Baskin's 11-yard offering at his feet and the Mount successfully cleared and called timeout.  Out of the timeout, the Mountaineers' Kelly Gouin lost possession and freshman Eddy Glassmeyer's ground ball and the Blue Jays' subsequent clear led to Murphy taking a feed along the goal line before dodging past a defender to get topside and sticking one under the crossbar past Furnback.
 
Murphy's game-winner completed a comeback in a game the Blue Jays trailed 3-0, 6-3, 7-4, 9-5, 11-7 and 12-8.
 
More than two hours before Murphy's winner, the Mountaineers had wasted little time taking control as Brendan Doyle, Sam Stephan and Gouin all scored in a 46-second span before the game was two minutes old to stake the Mount to an early 3-0 lead.
 
The Blue Jays were within 3-2 and 4-3 late in the first quarter, but the Mountaineers outscored the Blue Jays 3-1 in the second period to grab a 7-4 halftime lead; three different players scored in the period for Mount St. Mary's with Johns Hopkins managing just a Baskin goal in the stanza.
 
Williams scored the first of his four goals in the game to open the second half, but the Mount countered with back-to-back goals from Doyle in a span of just of just 76 seconds to extend the lead to 9-5.
 
Every time the Blue Jays answered in the second half, the Mountaineers matched them.  Consecutive tallies from Joey Epstein and Jacob Angelus for Johns Hopkins midway through the period were followed by strikes from Haggerty and Gouin – the first coming late in the third quarter and the second just over four minutes into the fourth to make it 11-7
 
The Blue Jays followed another Williams goal with one of Prouty's 20 faceoff wins, but a turnover, penalty and Haggerty's extra-man strike followed to give the Mount its third four-goal lead of the game at 12-8.
 
Johns Hopkins failed on an extra-man attempt a short time later, but sophomore Owen McManus caused a turnover near midfield that Degnon cashed in on 36 seconds later to jump-start the rally that forced overtime.  From there, all that was left was for Murphy to net the game-winner and give the Blue Jays their only lead of the game – as it turned out, it was the only lead that mattered.
 
Williams led the Blue Jays with four goals and one assist and Murphy (1g, 3a) and Angelus (2g, 2a) added four-point games.  Prouty won 20-of-26 faceoffs and grabbed 14 ground balls for Johns Hopkins, which outshot the Mountaineers 41-33.
 
Doyle (3g, 1a) and Brenden McCarthy (2g, 2a) led the way offensively for Mount St. Mary's, which got 14 saves from Furnback and goals from seven different players.
 
Johns Hopkins will return to action on Saturday, March 14 when the Blue Jays travel to Navy to take on the Midshipmen.  Faceoff is set for 12 pm.
 
Notes:  Murphy is the first freshman to score an overtime goal for Johns Hopkins since Joel Tinney beat Penn State with one in 2015 • In addition, he is just the sixth JHU freshman since 1975 to score in overtime (Mike O'Neill-1975 (Virginia), Kyle Barrie-2002 (Maryland), Brian Christopher-2006 (Loyola), Michael Kimmel-2007(Notre Dame)) • Prouty's 20 faceoff wins are one shy of his career high and his 14 ground balls are two shy of his career best; both of his personal bests came against Rutgers in 2019 • Tonight's game was the 300^th for Dave Pietramala as the head coach at Johns Hopkins and it came 19 years to the day of his first win as the Blue Jay head coach.