BALTIMORE, MD – The sixth-ranked Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team started the third quarter of Saturday's game against 17^th-ranked Ohio State leading 10-7.  When the horn sounded to end the period 15 minutes later, the Blue Jays had extended the lead to 17-7 and had, at that point, held the Buckeyes scoreless for nearly 20 minutes in what eventually became a 17-8 Homecoming victory at Homewood Field.
 
The win improves the Blue Jays' record to 10-4 overall and 3-1 in the Big Ten, while the Buckeyes slip to 5-7 overall and 1-3 in the Big Ten.  Hopkins is now 8-2 in its last 10 games.
 
After the teams combined for the 17 first-half goals, it was Johns Hopkins that came out firing in the third quarter as the Blue Jays scored on 7-of-13 shots in the period and got three goals and one assist in the quarter from attackman Garrett Degnon.  Meanwhile, the Blue Jay defense forced twice as many Buckeye turnovers (6) as they allowed shots (3) in the game-deciding 15-minutes and the JHU tandem of Matt Narewski and Tyler Dunn combined to win 7-of-8 faceoffs in the period.

It was a Degnon goal just 66 seconds into the second half that jump-started the decisive spurt the Blue Jays as he picked the corner on a quick feed to the slot from Jacob Angelus to make it 11-7.
 
The four-goal lead held for just over three minutes before Casey McDermott scored on the run to ignite a four-goals-in-four-minutes spree that put the game away.  A transition goal from sophomore LSM Nick Kaufman and back-to-back snipes from Dengon pushed the lead to 15-7 midway through the period and Matt Collison and Russell Melendez closed out the Blue Jay scoring with strikes in the final five minutes.  Collison stuck a laser from 14 yards and Melendez went behind-the-back and picked the near post from 15-feet out to give the Blue Jays the 10-goal lead.
 
A back-and-forth first half had seen the Buckeyes get game-opening goals from Jack Myers and Blake Eiland in the first 5:05 before the Blue Jays answered with a 6-2 spurt to grab a 6-4 lead early in the second quarter.  Six different Blue Jays scored during the spree for Johns Hopkins, which got the first three of those goals in a 51-second span in the middle of the first quarter.  Jacob Angelus stuck one under the crossbar to beat the shot clock, McDermott bounced one home off a throwback from Brooks English and wing specialist Jack Hawley scored off the ensuing faceoff on an acrobatic play on the crease to give the Blue Jays their first lead.
 
After Ohio State's Ed Shean answered the Hawley goal to make it 3-3, the Blue Jays took the lead for good with three straight over a six-minute span the bridged into the second quarter; Melendez, Collison and Degnon did the honors during this three-goal run with Brendan Grimes, Johnathan Peshko and Collison collecting assisting.
 
The Blue Jays pushed the 6-3 lead to 8-4 with just over nine minutes remaining in the first half, but Ohio State's Kyle Borda got his hands free on the run and went low to make it 8-5 and Myers added a man-down goal to trim the margin to 8-6; those two goals came just 64 seconds apart.  Collison and Melendez then wrapped goals around a Colby Smith strike for Ohio State to account for the 10-7 halftime score.
 
Smith's goal for the Buckeyes came with 4:25 on the second-quarter clock; by the time Ohio State scored again midway through the fourth quarter, nearly 28 minutes had passed and the Blue Jays had turned the 10-7 halftime lead into the 17-7 cushion.
 
Inside the Box Score – Johns Hopkins
• Nine different players scored goals and 13 players had at least one point for the Blue Jays.
• Degnon extended his goal-scoring streak to 26 games with a game-high four goals and he added one assist.  He now ranks 13^th in school history in career goals (106).
• Angelus (1g, 3a), Collison (3g, 1a), Melendez (3g) and Grimes (1g, 2a) all totaled at least three points in the victory.
• Narewski was 13-of-19 at the X with five ground balls, while Dunn was 8-of-9 with four GBs.  The 21 faceoff wins are the most for the Blue Jays this season.
• The stretch of 27:57 that Ohio State was held scoreless marked the 20^th time this season the Blue Jay defense has held the opposition scoreless for 10 minutes or longer.
• With goals from Hawley and Kaufman and an assist from Alex Mazzone, non-offensive players have now totaled 15 goals and 11 assists for the Blue Jays this season.
 
Inside the Box Score – Ohio State
• Myers paced the Buckeyes with three goals and one assist.  His man-down goal was the first for Ohio State this season.
• Skylar Wahlund posted 11 saves and collected four ground balls for OSU.
• The Buckeyes scored on 7-of-15 shots in the first half, but just 1-of-13 in the second half.
• OSU entered the game ranked 14^th in the nation in clearing and was 25-of-26 on the day.
 
Up Next
Johns Hopkins will close the regular season at Maryland on Saturday, April 22 (6 pm) with the 125^th renewal of the greatest rivalry in college lacrosse.  The game will air live on BTN.