BALTIMORE, MD – The Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team got a career-high six goals from Garrett Degnon, a personal-best six assists from Connor DeSimone and a standout performance from freshman faceoff specialist Logan Callahan as the Blue Jays eased past visiting Penn State, 13-10, at Homewood Field Saturday evening.  The win secures a home game for Johns Hopkins in the upcoming Big Ten Quarterfinals.
 
The Blue Jays (6-7, 2-2 B1G) sprinted out to a 9-4 lead at the half as Degnon scored five goals of his goals before intermission, DeSimone dished out four assists and the Johns Hopkins defense held the Nittany Lions scoreless for a stretch of 13:50 from late in the first quarter through late in the second.
 
Johns Hopkins held a one-goal lead (4-3) at the end of the first quarter, but scored the first four goals of the second quarter to extend the lead to five at 8-3.  Degnon scored the first three of those goals – two after Casey McDermott and DeSimone found him alone in the slot and one after the Blue Jays had killed off consecutive 30-second penalties – and Jacob Angelus made it a five-goal game at the half when he scored off a failed Penn State clear with 3.4 seconds remaining in the period.
 
The five-goal lead was up to seven two minutes into the second half as Jack Keogh scored off an assist from Angelus just 70 seconds into the period and Degnon added his sixth of the game 51 seconds later when he blew home an extra-man strike off a feed from DeSimone to make it 11-4.
 
Penn State (3-9, 1-3 B1G) had the seven-goal lead down to five midway through the quarter on back-to-back goals from Mac Costin and Canyon Birch in a 90-second span before a lightning delay brough the game to a halt for just over an hour at the 6:28 mark of the period.
 
Neither team scored over the remainder of the third quarter after play resumed, but Penn State had the margin at four after Ethan Long's extra-man goal just 33 seconds into the fourth quarter.
 
Back to-back goals from Joey Epstein and Angelus pushed the lead to six at 13-7 with just under nine minutes remaining.  The Epstein goal was the only one of the night for the Blue Jays that was unassisted.

Grant Haus answered the Angelus tally with 7:59 to play, but the Blue Jay defense held the score at 13-8 for more than seven minutes before Jake Morin and Dan Reaume scored in the final 50 seconds of the game to account for the 13-10 final score.
 
What It Means
• Johns Hopkins will host Penn State in the Big Ten quarterfinals on Saturday, April 30.  The time of the game will be announced on Sunday, April 24.
 
• Johns Hopkins improves to 12-4 all-time against Penn State.
 
• The Blue Jays are now 5-1 at home this season.
 
Inside the Box Score – Johns Hopkins
• Degnon's six goals are the most by a Johns Hopkins player since Epstein had six at Towson earlier this season.
 
• DeSimone's six assists are the most by a Blue Jay since Kyle Marr had six against Michigan on April 22, 2017.
 
• 12 of Johns Hopkins' 13 goals on the night were assisted, including each of the first 11.
 
• The Blue Jay defense held its fifth consecutive opponent under its season scoring average.
 
• Callahan won 18-of-23 faceoffs and grabbed a career-high 15 ground balls for Johns Hopkins.
 
• Angelus (2g, 2a), Epstein (2g), Grimes (2g) and McDermott (2a) joined Degnon and DeSimone with multi-point games.
 
Inside the Box Score – Penn State
• Costic (3g) was the only multi-goal scorer for Penn State as eight different players scored for the Nittany Lions.
 
• Freshman Will Peden had one goal and a team-high three assists for four points for PSU.
 
• Jack Fracyon came on in relief of starting goalie Aleric Fyock at halftime and posted 11 saves while allowing just four goals.
 
Up Next
Johns Hopkins will close the 2022 regular season on Saturday, April 23 when the Blue Jays welcome Maryland to Homewood Field for the 123^rd renewal of the greatest rivalry in college lacrosse (6 pm / ESPNU).