BALTIMORE, MD – The top-ranked Virginia men's lacrosse team jumped out to a 6-0 lead and held off a rally by host Johns Hopkins that twice cut the deficit to three as the Cavaliers scored an 18-13 win over the Blue Jays at Homewood Field Tuesday afternoon.  With the win, the Cavaliers improve to 5-0 on the year and retain the Doyle Smith Cup, which the teams have played for during their regular season meeting since 2006; the Blue Jays slip to 4-3 with the loss.
 
The Cavaliers led 3-0 less than five minutes into the game and doubled the lead to six less than a minute into the second quarter as Griffin Schutz and Patrick McIntosh both scored twice during the opening spree for Virginia.
 
The 11th-ranked Blue Jays cut the deficit in half with three goals in a span of just under five minutes midway through the second quarter.  Ian Krampf got the Blue Jays on the board at the 12:42 mark and Hunter Jaronski and Matt Collison added goals two minutes apart to make it 6-3.
 
The Cavaliers would push the lead to 10-5 at the half as Schutz scored twice more before the break, including one with just four seconds remaining in the second quarter.
 
A Garrett Degnon goal off a nice skip pass from Jacob Angelus opened the third quarter scoring for the Blue Jays, but Xander Dickson and Peter Gamo answered with strikes just 69 seconds apart to rebuild the six-goal lead for Virgnia (12-6).
 
Johns Hopkins answered with a run of its own as the Jays scored four of the next five goals to pull within three at 13-10 with just over four minutes remaining on the third quarter clock.  Krampf scored back-to-back goals to ignite the spree and Degnon and Russell Melendez answered another Dickson tally to make it a three-goal game.
 
McIntosh then helped the Cavaliers put the game away as he scored three straight in a five-minute span that bridged the third and fourth quarters to make it 16-10.  A Jakson Raposo goal just seven seconds after the third of McIntosh's three straight was followed by an extra-man goal from Collison with 8:13 on the clock that made it 16-12, but neither team would score for the next six minutes before Dickson wrapped a pair around another Collison strike in the final two minutes to account for the 18-13 final score.
 
Inside the Box Score – Johns Hopkins
• Krampf, Collison and Degnon all finished with three goals to lead the way for the Blue Jays offensively.
• Angelus and Melendez added one goal and one assist each and 11 different players registered at least one point on the day for Johns Hopkins.
• Senior Tim Marcille posted 11 saves in goal, including five in the second quarter when the Blue Jays hopped back in the game.
• JHU was 3-for-5 on extra-man and the Blue Jays have converted on eight of their last 11 attempts.
 
Inside the Box Score - Virginia
• Dickson and McIntosh both scored six goals and Schutz added four.  In all, the Cavaliers got goals from just five players in the victory.
• Senior Petey LaSalla was 22-of-33 on faceoffs with 11 ground balls.
• Matthew Nunes posted nine saves and allowed 13 goals as he went the distance in goal.
 
Notes of Interest
• Degnon pushed his goal-scoring streak to 19 games with his 15th career hat trick.  He is now one point shy of 100 in his career.
• Collison's three-goal effort marks his fifth consecutive multi-goal game.  He is the first freshman middie at Johns Hopkins with five straight multi-goal games in at least 20 years.
• Krampf's hat trick is his second in the last three games.
 
Up Next
Johns Hopkins will return to action on Saturday, March 11 when the Blue Jays travel to Syracuse to take on the Orange (4 pm).