BALTIMORE, MD – The 15^th-ranked Denver men's lacrosse team scored two goals in the final 44 seconds of regulation to force overtime and then scored the game-winner just over two minutes into the extra period as the Pioneers slipped past sixth-ranked Johns Hopkins, 13-12, at Homewood Field Saturday afternoon.
 
Johns Hopkins led 11-7 entering the fourth quarter after Jacob Angelus scored an unassisted goal with 7:14 remaining in the third quarter; neither team scored over the final seven minutes of the third and the four-goal Blue Jay lead held until just over eight minutes remained in regulation.
 
The Pioneers struck for two goals in a three-minute span to cut the 11-7 deficit in half as a Cody Malawsky extra-man goal jump-started the rally at the 8:08 mark and Stephen Avery added an unassisted goal of his own three minutes later.
 
Johns Hopkins pushed the margin back to three at 12-9 when Angelus found Johnathan Peshko 12 yards in front of the goal and Peshko rifled home his second of the day.
 
From there, it was all JJ Sillstrop as he scored the final four goals of the game to fuel the victory.  His unassisted goal at the 3:29 mark made it 12-10 and that score held until the final minute, when he scored twice to force overtime.  Sillstrop went low-to-low from the wing with 40 seconds left and then blew home a 15-yarder at the buzzer off a restart to pull Denver even at 12-12.  Denver was working with non-releasable man advantage when he netted the game-tying goal.
 
The Blue Jays were able to kill off the man-down situation in overtime, but Denver withstood a Blue Jay possession and then Sillstrop scored the game-winner with a laser from seven yards out to the left of Blue Jay goalie Chayse Ierlan.
 
After Denver scored the game-opening goal, Johns Hopkins scored nine of the next 14 to grab a 9-6 halftime lead.  Five different Blue Jays scored in the first quarter as the Hopkins led 5-3 at the end of the first quarter after scoring on 5-of-9 shots in the period.
 
Sillstrop scored twice in a 90-second span early in the second quarter, but Johns Hopkins freshman Hunter Chauvette matched him with consecutive goals of his own – one on a nifty two-man game with Angelus and the other on a low-to-high bullet to the top shelf – that gave the Blue Jays a 7-5 lead.  Garrett Degnon and Dylan Bauer then wrapped goals around a Malawsky tally for the Pioneers in the final four minutes of the first half to account for the 9-6 halftime score.
 
Angelus capped his hat trick in third quarter as he bookended a Ty Hussey goal in the first 7:46 of the period to give the Blue Jays the 11-7 lead.  That lead would hold for just over 14 minutes before Malawsky's extra-man goal ignited the Denver rally.
 
Inside the Box Score – Johns Hopkins
• Angelus posted the fourth hat trick of his career and added three assists to pace the Blue Jays with six points.
• Degnon extended his goal-scoring streak to 31 games with his one goal.  The streak is the longest active run in the nation.
• Chauvette finished with three goals and is the first Hopkins freshman to net a hat trick in his first career game since Shack Stanwick had three goals against UMBC in 2015.
• Ierlan made his first career start in goal and posted 12 saves.
• Junior Logan Callahan was 12-of-23 on faceoffs and had three ground balls.
 
Inside the Box Score – Denver
• Sillstrop led the Pioneers with a career-high six goals on 11 shots.
• Malawsky was the only other multi-goal scorer for Denver as he finished with two goals and one assist.
• Alec Stathakis took all 26 faceoffs for Denver and finished 14-of-26 with four ground balls.
• Malcolm Kleban earned the win in goal for the Pioneers as he played 59:12 and posted eight saves.
 
Up Next
Johns Hopkins will make a quick turnaround as the Blue Jays will host Towson on Tuesday, February 6 (4 pm).  The game will air live on ESPNU.