BALTIMORE, MD – Visiting George Washington held off a second-half comeback by Johns Hopkins to hold on for a 14-12 win in Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) Sunday afternoon. The Blue Jays fall to 9-15 overall and 2-5 in the MAWPC, while the Revolutionaries improve to 10-6 overall and 6-1 in the conference.
GW drew two early five-meter calls but couldn't convert either one. Rowan Keane got the Revs on the board at 6:39, but junior
Quint Steffey answered with a six-on-five goal just 34 seconds later. Antonio Florena then scored back-to-back goals followed by an Andrija Sekulic score and it was 4-1 after one.
Senior
Ian Raley scored on a five-meter just 19 seconds into the second to cut the deficit in half. But the visitors responded with four in a row to take an 8-2 lead into the half. Hopkins came out firing in the third quarter, scoring five unanswered to pull within one. Sophomore
Owen Bartlett got things going with an even-strength goal at 6:38. Freshman
Phillip Long then buried a penalty shot, followed by goals from classmate
Patrick Rooney and Bartlett. Sophomore
Alex Baker capped the run with a man-up goal at 2:45 to make it an 8-7 game.
Andrei Khudiakov scored with just 20 ticks on the clock to put GW back up by two heading into the fourth. The teams traded goals over the first five minutes of the final period and the Revs led 12-11. Adonis Vlassis and Florena then scored consecutive goals in a 73-second span to put GW up 14-11 with 1:04 to play. Bartlett got one back for the Blue Jays on a six-on-five with nine seconds left, but JHU could get no closer.
Bartlett led Hopkins with four goals and five points. Junior
Daniel Palfi handed out a team-high three assists and Baker added a three-point (2g, 1a) game. Junior
Jason Mihalopoulos drew three ejections and senior
Kyle Pearson made 15 saves to go with two steals.
Hopkins returns to the pool on Sunday to take on Conn College in the final game of the CWPA Division III Eastern Championship.
Notes: Pearson now ranks second in program history with 671 career saves.