BALTIMORE, MD – The Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team jumped out to a 7-1 second quarter lead and the Blue Jay defense held Penn State to just one goal in the first, second and fourth quarters in what became a 16-8 JHU victory over the Nittany Lions in the Big Ten Quarterfinals at Homewood Field Saturday afternoon.  Johns Hopkins (7-8) advances to the Big Ten Semifinals, while Penn State ends the season at 3-11.
 
The Blue Jays spotted the Nittany Lions an early 1-0 lead, but broke through when Connor DeSimone fired home an extra-man goal at the 6:18 mark of the first quarter.  DeSimone's goal ignited the seven-goal run, which began with his strike and ended with two goals in five seconds late in the second quarter.  Senior attackman Joey Epstein scored twice during the spree for the Blue Jays, who capped the run with a shot-clock-beating goal from senior Garrett Degnon at the 3:17 mark of the second and a Tyler Dunn goal five seconds later off the ensuing faceoff.
 
Penn State's Mark Sickler then bookended a 3-1 spurt that bridged the second and third quarters to pull the Nittany Lions within four and Penn State was still within four at 10-6 after back-to-back goals from Matt Traynor and Jake Morin in a 37-second span late in the third.  Sicker's first goal of the game halted the seven-goal Blue Jay run and a scorless streak of 25:59 for the Nittany Lions.
 
Hopkins answered Morin's goal with two strikes in a 12-second span – the first an extra-man goal from Johnathan Peshko and the second off the ensuing faceoff from defenseman Scott Smith.  Peshko's goal came with one second remaining on a two-man advantage (after the Blue Jays had been up three men (for 30 seconds) at the start of a three-man extra-man opportunity).
 
Will Peden gave the Nittany Lions life at the end of the third with his 11^th goal of the season off a feed from Mac Costin while the Blue Jays were in a 10-man ride, but Hopkins scored four of the five goals in the final period to account for the 16-8 final score.  Peshko, Degnon and DeSimone all scored their second of the game in the final period, while Hunter Jaronski added an empty net goal to help seal the victory.
 
What It Means
• Johns Hopkins advances to the Big Ten Semifinals, where the Blue Jays will face top-seeded and top-ranked Maryland.  The semifinals and championship game of the Big Ten Tournament will be held at Maryland.
• The Blue Jays improve to 13-4 all-time against Penn State, including 3-1 in the Big Ten Tournament.
• The win today is the eighth all-time for Johns Hopkins in the Big Ten Tournament; that's the most tournament wins of any team in the league.
• Today's win comes seven years to the day that Hopkins topped Penn State, 14-9, in the first-ever Big Ten Men's Lacrosse Tournament game.
 
Inside the Box Score – Johns Hopkins
• Epstein's had a team-high three goals and now has 100 in his career.
• A season-high 11 different players scored goals for the Blue Jays with DeSimone and Peshko both punching up a team-high four points on two goals and two assists.
• Josh Kirson posted 14 saves while allowing just the eight goals.  His final save of the game was the 500^th of his career.
• Senior Matt Narewski won 11-of-17 faceoffs and had eight ground balls.  He is now just two GBs shy of 200 for his career.
• The scoreless stretch of 25:59 for Penn State is the longest such streak for the Blue Jay defense this season and marked the 14^th time Hopkins has held the opposition scoreless for 10 minutes or longer this year.
 
Inside the Box Score – Penn State
• Sickler was the only multi-goal scorer for Penn State, while Peden (1g, 2a) and Morin (1g, 2a) paced the Nittany Lions with three points apiece.
• Freshman goalie Jack Fracyon was strong in goal as he posted 17 saves, including 11 in the first half and 15 through three quarters.
• Jake Glatz won 8-of-18 faceoffs and had three ground balls and PSU won 12-of-27 faceoffs on the day.  When the teams met two weeks ago, Penn State won just 6-of-26 faceoffs.
 
Up Next
Johns Hopkins play Maryland in the Big Ten Semifinals on Thursday, May 5 at 5:30 pm.  The game will air live on BTN.
 
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