The Game
• The seventh-ranked Johns Hopkins (8-3, 1-0 B1G) men's lacrosse team welcomes ninth-ranked Rutgers (7-2, 0-1 B1G) to Homewood Field. Faceoff is set for 3 pm on Saturday, April 1 with a live national television audience on ESPNU. The Johns Hopkins-Rutgers game is the only game on April 1 featuring two top-10 teams.
When Last We Saw Them
• Johns Hopkins picked up a 15-11 win at Michigan in its Big Ten opener last Saturday night (March 25) in Ann Arbor. The win was the fourth straight for the Blue Jays.
• Rutgers had a five-game winning streak snapped as the Scarlet Knights dropped an 11-7 decision at Ohio State on Sunday night (March 26).
The Facts
• This is the 136th season of Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse. JHU first fielded a team in 1883.
• Johns Hopkins enters this week's game with an all-time record of 1,012-367-15 (.731).
• Johns Hopkins is the only men's lacrosse program in the nation with 1,000 or more all-time victories. The Blue Jays picked up the program's 1,000th victory with an 11-10 win over Loyola on February 19, 2022.
• JHU owns 44 national championships with nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA crowns to its credit.
Poll Position
• Johns Hopkins is ranked seventh in this week's USILA Coaches Poll and seventh in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll.
• Rutgers is ranked ninth in this week's USILA Coaches Poll and ninth in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll.
• The Johns Hopkins Athletic Communications Office uses the USILA Poll when referencing JHU's official ranking at the time of a game.
500th Top 20 Ranking
• After being listed as receiving votes in the USILA Preseason Poll, the Blue Jays made the jump to ninth after starting the season at 2-0.
• The number nine ranking marked the 500th time in school history that JHU has appeared in the top 20 of the USILA Poll.
• The USILA Poll debuted in 1973 and this week's poll is the 525th issued; JHU's number seven ranking this week means the Blue Jays have appeared in 506 of the 525 polls. In addition, this week's number seven ranking marks the 429th time that Johns Hopkins has been ranked in the top 10 in the nation.
The Schedule - Just Sayin'
• To date, Johns Hopkins has played six of its 11 games against teams ranked in the top 20 in the nation at the time of the game.
• In all, nine of JHU's 15 opponents on the 2023 schedule are ranked in the top 20 this week. Among those nine are six of the top 12 in this week's national rankings.
Series History
• This week's game will be the 45th all-time meeting between Johns Hopkins and Rutgers. The Blue Jays lead the series 35-9.
• A complete look at the series history between Johns Hopkins and Rutgers can be found on page 18.
Johns Hopkins and the Big Ten
• Johns Hopkins joined the Big Ten as a sport affiliate member in 2015, the first year the league offered men's lacrosse as a championship sport.
• Since the league was formed, the Blue Jays ranks second in all-time appearances in the Big Ten title game (4) and second in Big Ten Tournament titles (2).
• The eight games JHU has won in the Big Ten Tournament are the second most in league history.
• Including games played before the Big Ten was formed in 2015, Johns Hopkins is 141-70-1 (.667) all-time against teams currently competing in the Big Ten.
Balanced Scoring
• Johns Hopkins features one of the most balanced scoring sheets in the nation this season.
. The Blue Jays count 18 different players with at least one goal, 19 players with at least one assist and 22 players with at least one point.
• Taking the production up a notch, 10 players currently have at least six goals and 10 have at least seven points.
• Leading the way for the Jays thus far are Jacob Angelus (9g, 28a), Garrett Degnon (25g, 2a), Brendan Grimes (14g, 10a), Matt Collison (17g, 4a), Russell Melendez (16g, 9a), Dylan Bauer (8g, 4a), Johnathan Peshko (10g, 3a), Ryan Evans (6g 3a) and Ian Krampf (6g, 2a), who all have at least eight points thus far.
It's (Almost) All Coming Back
• Johns Hopkins has scored 130 goals and collected 76 assists for 206 points through 11 games. Of those totals, 94 (80%) of the goals, 71 (93.4%) of the assists and 175 (84.9%) of the points have been accumulated by players with at least one year of eligibility remaining.
Three With Four+ Goals at Michigan
• Johns Hopkins got four+ goals from three different players in the 15-11 win at Michigan. This marked the first time in more than nine years that JHU had three players with at least four goals in one game.
• In the win against the Wolverines, it was Garrett Degnon (5), Brendan Grimes (4) and Russell Melendez (4) all scoring 4+ as they combined for 13 of JHU's 15 goals in the victory..
• Prior to this, the last time Johns Hopkins had three players with four or more goals in the same game was on February 15, 2014, when Ryan Brown (4), Brandon Benn (4) and John Crawley (4) all had four goals in a 15-8 win over Towson.
23 Straight For Degnon
• Graduate student attackman Garrett Degnon continues to lead the team in goals (25) as the Blue Jays get set to welcoming Rutgers to Homewood Field. Since missing the game against Utah on February 25, he has scored 18 goals in six games with at least two goals in each of those six outings.
• A five-goal effort in the 15-11 win at Michigan pushed his goal-scoring streak to 23 games dating back to February 19, 2022, when he scored once in an 11-10 win over Loyola. The streak is currently tied for the third longest active streak in the nation.
• During his 23-game goal-scoring run, Degnon has scored 60 goals and has 18 multi-goal games and 10 games with 3+ goals to his credit.
• Degnon's 23-game run is also the longest by a Johns Hopkins player since a school-record-tying 37-game run by Ryan Brown that ran from 2013-16.
Offensive Notes of Interest
• Since the start of the 2022 season, the Blue Jays are 14-2 when they score 11 or more goals.]
• In 44 quarters this season, the Blue Jays have scored two or more goals in 34 quarters and four or more in 19 quarters.
Extra-Extra
• The Johns Hopkins extra-man unit has converted on 11-of-29 (.379) attempts this season, but that hardly tells the story.
• After going 0-for-7 in the first four games of the season, the Blue Jays have converted on 11-of-22 (.500) chances in the last seven games.
• Entering this week's games, the Blue Jays rank 40th in the nation in extra-man offense.
Non-Offensive Scoring
• Through 11 games, Johns Hopkins has gotten 17 points (9g, 8a) from non-offensive players, an average of 1.55 points per game.
• The Blue Jays got five points (2g, 3a) from non-offensive players against top-ranked Virginia as SSDMs Hunter Jaronski and Jakson Raposo both scored goals with faceoff specialists Matt Narewski and Logan Callahan and goalie Tim Marcille grabbing assists.
• Last season, the Blue Jays got 14 goals and eight assists for 22 points from non-offensive players in 16 games (just under 1.4 points/game).
Defensive Notes of Interest
• The Johns Hopkins defense has held 10 of 11 opponents under its season scoring average this season. The Blue Jays have held five teams at least three goals under current scoring average.
• In addition, the Blue Jays have held their 11 opponents scoreless for a period of at least 10 minutes 16 different times thus far this season - seven of those have come in the last four games.
• Through 11 games this season, the opposition has cashed in on 12-of-30 (.400) EMO chances; Johns Hopkins ranks 47th in the nation in man-down defense with a 60% kill rate.
• JHU allowed just 12 extra-man goals (on 35 chances) in 2022. The 12 EMO goals allowed are the fewest by a Blue Jay team since 2016, when Hopkins allowed just 11 (of 33 chances).
• Johns Hopkins was 4-0 in 2021, 5-0 in 2022 and, with the recent wins over Syracuse (11-9), Navy (12-9) and Delaware (12-10), is now 14-0 under head coach Peter Milliman and defensive coordinator Jamison Koesterer when holding the opposition to 10 goals or less.
Closing Strong
• The Blue Jays' current four-game winning streak has come on the strength of some strong play down the stretch in each game.
• During JHU's current four-game winning streak, the Blue Jays have outscored their three opponents by a combined score of 14-3 in the final 10 minutes of the fourth quarter.
• In the 11-9 win at Syracuse, the Blue Jays scored the final three goals of the game and held the Orange scoreless for the final 11:19.
• At Navy, Hopkins trailed 9-8 with just over eight minutes remaining before outscoring the Midshipmen 4-1 in the final 8:16.
• Down 9-5 midway through the third quarter, the Blue Jays scored seven straight goals and outscored Delaware 7-1 in the final 23:03 to fuel a 12-10 victory.
• Down 9-8 with less than five minutes remaining in the third quarter, the Blue Jays outscored Michigan 7-1 in a 15-minute span to grab a 15-10 lead.
Causing Trouble
• Johns Hopkins caused a season-high 11 turnovers in the 15-14 win over 13th-ranked St. Joseph's and added 10 at Michigan. The Blue Jays now have 82 CTs on the year for an average of 7.45 per game.
• Leading the way in the CT category this season is junior Scott Smith, who counts 15 CTs to his credit in 11 games. Alex Mazzone (11), Carson Brown (9) and Brett Martin (8) all have at least eight CTs on the year as well.
• Johns Hopkins set a program single-season record in 2022 as the Blue Jays averaged 7.63 caused turnovers per game. This came one year after the Blue Jays had set a record by averaging 6.92 CTs per game in 2021.
• Among returning players, senior Beaudan Szuluk (21 CTs) and juniors Smith (18) and Martin (11) all totaled more than 10 caused turnovers last season, while Mazzone had 20 CTs at Georgetown in 2022.
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