MORGANTOWN, WV – Host Salem beat Johns Hopkins, 24-10, on Sunday to wrap up the Salem Open. The Blue Jays see their three-game win streak snapped as they fall to 5-3, while the Tigers move to 7-2 with their fourth straight to improve to 7-2.
The Tigers jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the game's opening five minutes and 10 seconds, fueled by three goals from Danko Kesic. Junior
Dado Soares and freshman
Phillip Long then sandwiched goals around another Kesic score and it was 6-3 33 seconds into the second quarter.
Kesic scored his fourth of the game to ignite a nine-goal Salem run as the home team stormed out to a 15-3 lead at the 5:57-mark in the third. Soares ended the run with a five-meter goal at 5:44, but the Tigers responded with four in a row to push out to a 19-4 lead.
Senior
Ian Raley answered for the Blue Jays and sparked a four-goal run that saw Hopkins trim the deficit to 12 early in the fourth quarter. The teams then traded two-goal spurts over the final four and a half minutes as Salem held on for the win.
Soares and Long led the Blue Jays with two goals each while Long also had an assist to finish with three points. Freshman
Patrick Rooney drew four ejections and sophomore
Ethan Babel totaled two ejections drawn, two blocks and two steals to go with his goal.
Hopkins returns to action on Sunday, September 22 versus Fordham (10:40 am) and Wagner (4:00 pm) at Bucknell.