CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – The seventh-ranked Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team entered halftime of Saturday's showdown at second-ranked Virginia on pace to score 16 goals.  The problem for the Blue Jays at that point was the Cavaliers, who were on pace for 20 as they carried a 10-8 lead into the break.  Something had to change.  Something did.
 
The Blue Jays (5-1) traded the first four goals of the second half with the Cavaliers, then scored six of the final eight of the game to lock up a 16-14 road victory that gave Hopkins possession of the Doyle Smith Cup.  In a game of runs, it was the final Blue Jay spurt and strong play on defense and in the goal that proved to be the difference.
 
After exactly five scoreless minutes to open the second half, the Blue Jays scored twice in a 19-second span to pull even at 10 on strikes from Johnathan Peshko and Hunter Chauvette.
 
Joey Terenzi and Ryan Colsey gave the Cavaliers a 12-10 lead with back-to-back goals in a span of just under three minutes midway through the third quarter; it was the fourth, two-goal lead of the game for Virginia, but would also be the last.
 
An extra-man goal from Matt Collison cut the lead to 12-11 with 3:11 on the third quarter clock and the Cavaliers maintained that cushion into the fourth quarter.  The one-goal lead at the quarter break was a two-goal deficit less than three minutes into the final period as Peshko went low, Garrett Degnon scored off a nice cut to the slot and Collison rifled one home on the run to give the Jays a 14-12 lead with 12:34 remaining.
 
While the offense was clicking, the Blue Jay defense and graduate student goalie Chayse Ierlan were dialing it in on the other end.  Ierlan stopped a hands-free offering from Griffin Schutz less than a minute after the Collison goal and was then equal to an open look from McCabe Millon with exactly eight minutes on the clock to preserve the two-goal lead.
 
Virginia (3-1) finally ended a scoring drought that had dripped past 13 minutes when Connor Shellenberger scooped up a loose ball and scored from 10 yards out.  The Blue Jays committed a personal foul on the goal to give the Cavaliers a one-minute extra-man opportunity, but a big faceoff win from junior Logan Callahan gave the Blue Jays possession and Jacob Angelus scored a man-down goal with five seconds left on the penalty.  It was the first man-down goal for Johns Hopkins in nearly two years and couldn't have come at a better time.

The Cavaliers answered quickly as Shellenberger scored off the ensuing faceoff, but Ierlan stopped another Shellenberger offering a short time later and Collison made it 16-14 with 85 seconds remaining
 
Ierlan would make one more stop – this one with 48 seconds remaining on a shot from Colsey – and the Blue Jays kept the Cavaliers away down the stretch to seal the victory.

In a first half that saw the teams combine for 18 goals on 43 shots, it was Virginia that carried the 10-8 lead into the break as the Cavaliers scored the final two goals before halftime.

Virginia led 3-1 early, only to have the Blue Jays erupt for four goals in less than five minutes to grab a 5- 3 lead.  Four different Blue Jays scored during the spurt with Collison, Degnon, Russell Melendez and Peshko all finding the net.
 
The Cavaliers answered with a four-goal run of their own with Schutz scoring the final two of those to give UVA a 7-5 lead.

It didn't take long – six seconds to be exact – for the Blue Jays to pull even as a Brendan Grimes goal was followed immediately by a fastbreak tally from faceoff specialist Tyler Dunn.
 
The first half of runs saw the Cavaliers score three of the final four before intermission with Schutz and Millon breaking and 8-8 tie.  Millon's goal came on the extra-man with 3:29 on the second quarter clock and made it 10-8.  That score would hold into the second half before the third of Peshko's four goals in the game ignited an 8-4 game-ending run that lifted the Blue Jays to the 16-14 victory.
 
Inside the Box Score – Johns Hopkins
• The first midfield of Peshko (4g, 1a), Collison (4g, 1a) and Dylan Bauer (2a) combined for 12 points.
• Ierlan ended with a Johns Hopkins career-high 16 saves, including 15 in the last three quarters and nine in the second half.
• Callahan (10-of-16/8 GBs) and Dunn (10-of-18/7 GBs, 1g) combined to help the Blue Jays go 20-of-34 at the X.
• Degnon finished with three goals and extended the nation's longest goal-scoring streak to 36 games.  He is one game shy of trying the JHU record for consecutive games with a goal.
• The Blue Jay starting defense of Scott Smith, Beaudan Szuluk and Quintan Kilrain combined for 10 ground balls and six caused turnovers.
 
Inside the Box Score – Virginia
• Shellenberger led Virginia with four goals and two assists, while Schutz (3g, 1a) and Payton Cormier (2g, 2a) also recorded four-point games.
• In all, 11 different players had at least one point and eight players scored at least one goal for the Cavaliers.
• Matthew Nunes posted 11 saves in goal, including seven in the first half as UVA built its 10-8 halftime lead.
 
Notes of Interest
• The last time Johns Hopkins topped a team ranked as high as second in the nation was on April 27, 2019, when the Blue Jays topped then second-ranked Maryland, 16-11.
• JHU is 21-14 all-time against teams ranked second in the nation (dates to the debut of the USILA Poll in 1973).
• The Blue Jays are 5-1 after six games for the first time since 2014.
 
Up Next
Johns Hopkins will conclude its three-game southern trip against ACC opponents on Saturday, March 9 when the Blue Jays take on Syracuse in the Crown Lacrosse Classic in Charlotte, North Carolina.  The Hopkins-Syracuse game will be the fourth of four games played in the event and is set to begin at 6:30 pm (ESPN+).  This will be the 62^nd all-time meeting between the Blue Jays and the Orange in a series that dates to a 4-4 tie in 1921.