ANNAPOLIS, MD – The Johns Hopkins water polo team dropped its first two games of the season at the Navy Open Saturday. Hopkins faced a tall task in taking on defending national champion Cal (33-4) in the opener. JHU then took on Cal Lutheran (17-11), ranked fourth in Division III.
The top-ranked Bears raced out to an 8-0 lead before junior
Cameron Burns got the Blue Jays on the board with an ejection goal at the 1:15-mark. Cal responded with a pair of strikes in the final 60 seconds of the opening quarter to take a 10-1 lead.
Cal picked up right where it left off, scoring 13 unanswered goals in a run that bridged the second and third quarters. Freshman
Gavin Brooke ended the Bears' run with his first career goal with 1:06 to go in the third. Cal scored the next three goals to push its lead to 26-2 just 40 seconds into the fourth. Sophomore
Ian Raley got one back for Hopkins, but Cal again responded with an extended run. The Bears scored the next seven goals before Brooke added his second of the morning to account for the 33-4 final.
Graduate student
Emerson Sullivan opened the scoring just 39 seconds into the nightcap versus Cal Lutheran. The Kingsman answered with a 3-1 burst to go up 3-2 with 2:24 left in the first. Graduate student
Jayden Kunwar pulled the Blue Jays even with an ejection goal at 1:37. Cal Lutheran came right back with a man-up goal of its own to take a 4-3 lead, but Burns had the final say of the quarter, knotting the score at four with 37 ticks on the clock.
The teams traded goals to open the second and it was 5-5 with 3:04 on the clock. The Kingsmen then scored three straight to go up 8-5 at the half. The Blue Jays opened the third with a 3-1 run to pull within one midway through the quarter. Cal Lutheran responded by scoring six of the next seven goals to push out to a 17-9 lead with 1:08 to play. Raley scored twice in the final 49 seconds to close out the game.
Hopkins returns to action at the Navy Open on Sunday, September 4 against 11
th-ranked Princeton (10:30 am) and Salem (4:15 pm).
Inside the Box (Cal): Brooke led the Blue Jays with a pair of goals, while Raley and Burns added one each.
Inside the Box (Cal Lutheran): Sullivan notched his 25
th career hat trick and scored the 150
th goal of his career. Kunwar added a pair of goals and now counts 195 goals in his career. He needs five more to become just the 11
th player in program history with 200 career goals. Raley scored twice, while Burns and junior
Paul Gensbigler each scored once.
