BALTIMORE, MD – The Johns Hopkins men's soccer team scored a pair of goals in each half to defeat visiting Swarthmore, 4-1, in Centennial Conference action Saturday afternoon. The Blue Jays improve to 6-2-3 overall and 2-1-1 in the conference, while the Garnet fall to 1-5-3 and 0-2-2.
Griffin Meyer put the Blue Jays on the board in the ninth minute with the first of his two goals. Sophomore
Diego Elias played a ball 50 yards over the Garnet defense to Meyer. He took one touch and then volleyed a left-footed shot under Swarthmore goalie Christian Bignotti from 15 yards out.
Just 12 minutes later, Hopkins doubled its lead, once again off the left foot of
Griffin Meyer. From the right sideline, graduate student
Eli Carr threw the ball into classmate
Max Edelstein, who flicked it forward. Meyer ran onto it in and fired a low shot to the back post.
Swarthmore cut the deficit in half in the 53
rd minute as the Garnet capitalized on a free kick right outside the box. Komme Murungi took the direct kick for Swarthmore and bent the ball just under the crossbar to make it a 2-1 game.
The Blue Jays pushed their lead back to two in the 72
nd minute with a quick counterattack. A behind-the-back pass from junior
Ian Whamond sprung classmate
Will Sangpachatanaruk. He dribbled 20 yards before slipping a pass to Meyer at the top of the box. Meyer shot the ball under a charging Bignotti and sophomore
Giulian Laudisa one-timed it into the open goal from just six yards out.
Senior
Tyler White extended the lead to three in the 84
th minute after a nice give-and-go. He dribbled into the offensive end of the field and passed to junior
Jonathan Cui. Cui back-heeled the ball right back to White, who took one touch and then ripped a shot from 25 yards out to the bottom right corner.
Hopkins outshot Swarthmore, 12-8, and had a 5-4 edge in corner kicks. Senior
Drew Valsamedis finished with one save in the win and Bignotti also tallied one save.
Hopkins returns to action on Saturday, October 7 as the Blue Jays host the Gettysburg Bullets. The Centennial Conference contest is scheduled for a 1:00 pm start at Homewood Field.
Notes: The four goals are the most by the Blue Jays since a 4-1 win at Dickinson on October 20, 2021 • The four goals are also the most against the Garnet since a 4-0 Blue Jay win on September 15, 2007 • This is Meyer's third multi-goal game of his career and first at Johns Hopkins • His fifth points are a career-high.
