CHAPEL HILL, NC – The ninth-ranked Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team used a 6-2 run over a 17-minute span from late in the second quarter through the end of the third to fuel a 13-9 win at 15^th-ranked North Carolina Saturday afternoon.  The win is the fourth straight for the Blue Jays, who improve to 4-1 with the victory, while the Tar Heels suffer their first loss of the year and slip to 2-1.
 
The Blue Jays led by scores of 3-1 and 5-3, but were deadlocked at 5-5 late in the second quarter after Carolina scored twice in a 35-second span late in the period.  Garrett Degnon then gave the Blue Jays a 6-5 lead at the break as he scored in transition after senior Patrick Deans caused a turnover and classmate Brett Martin fed Degnon for what turned out to be the goal that gave the Jays the lead for good.
 
The one-goal lead was up to three less than five minutes into the third quarter as a transition goal from senior Jakson Raposo and an extra-man tally from Russell Melendez extended the Blue Jay lead to 8-5.
 
The Tar Heels then sandwiched two goals – strikes from Ty English and Johnny Schwarz – around the first goal of Jimmy Ayers' career for the Blue Jays to pull within 9-7 midway through the third quarter, but Ayers answered with his second off a quick dodge from behind the goal and then fed Brendan Grimes for his third of the day late in the period make it 11-7 entering the final period.
 
After English and Melendez traded goals in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, the Tar Heels had a golden chance to cut into the 12-8 deficit when the Blue Jays were called for four one-minute penalties in a span of less than 90 seconds with less than seven minutes remaining.  With the way the penalties overlapped, the 'Heels were up two men for 45 seconds, then three for 15 seconds, two for 21 seconds and one for nearly 40 seconds, but couldn't cash in against the Blue Jay man-down unit.
 
Matt Collison closed the scoring for Johns Hopkins with an empty net goal with 2:06 on the clock before Antonio DeMarco added one for the Tar Heels with 90 seconds remaining to account for the 13-9 final score.
 
Johns Hopkins goalie Chayse Ierlan and his counterpart, Collin Krieg, combined for nine saves in a first quarter that saw the teams combine to take 27 shots.  After nearly seven scoreless minutes, Degnon opened the scoring with a goal in transition and Collison answered a Dominic Pietramala extra-man goal to make it 2-1 after 15 minutes.
 
After the teams went just 3-for-27 shooting in the first quarter, the scoring picked up in the second as they evenly split eight goals on 19 shots.  Grimes bookended consecutive goals for the Tar Heels before the period was seven minutes old and Jacob Angelus followed the second Grimes goal with a 10-yard rocket to the top shelf off a feed in transition from Hunter Jaronski.  The goal followed a big save from Ierlan, who jump-started the scoring play with a quick outlet.
 
Dewey Egan and Pietramala pulled the Tar Heels even for the final time when they struck just 35 seconds apart a short time after Angelus scored, but they'd score just twice in the next 20 minutes as the Blue Jays gradually pulled away and never let the UNC get closer than two over the final 25 minutes of the game.
 
Inside the Box Score – Johns Hopkins
• Ierlan posted a season-high 13 saves to spearhead the Blue Jays defensively. 
• In a game that saw JHU win the ground ball battle 36-31, the Hopkins' starting close defense of Beaudan Szuluk (6), Scott Smith (5) and Quintan Kilrain (2) combined for 13 GBs.  The unit helped hold UNC's starting attack to no goals (on 14 shots) and four assists.
• Grimes notched his sixth career hat trick and paced the Jays with four points (3g, 1a).
• A balanced scoring sheet for the Blue Jays also saw Ayers, Degnon and Melendez chip in with two goals and one assist, while Angelus added one goal and two assists.
 
Inside the Box Score – North Carolina
• Pietramala (2g, 1a) and English (2g) were the only multi-goal scorers for the Tar Heels.
• Krieg finished with 11 saves, including eight in the first half when the team battled nearly evenly.
• Brady Wambach went 13-of-18 on faceoffs and had a game-high nine ground balls.
 
Notes of Interest
• Degnon extended the nation's longest goal-scoring streak to 35 games.  He is two shy of the JHU record of 37 (Terry Riordan, Ryan Brown).
• Degnon's two goals moved him into a tie with Jeff Cook (1979-82) for sixth place on JHU's career goal-scoring list (128).
• JHU has won three of its last four games at North Carolina.
 
Up Next
Johns Hopkins will return to action on Saturday, March 2 when the Blue Jays travel to Charlottesville to take on Virginia (1 pm | ACC Network).  This will be the 97^th all-time meeting between the Blue Jays and Cavaliers in a series that to a 9-0 Blue Jay victory in 1904.