LEWISBURG, PA – Johns Hopkins dropped a pair of Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) games on Sunday at the Bucknell Invitational. JHU fell to 10
th-ranked Fordham, 28-9, in the morning and then lost 16-8 to Wagner in the final game of the invitational. The Blue Jays are now 5-5 overall and 1-2 in the MAWPC.
Fordham jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the game's opening five and a half minutes before freshman
Andrew Lee got Hopkins on the board with 68 seconds left in the quarter. The Rams pushed their lead to 11-1 with the first three goals of the second. Sophomore
Max Blecher stopped the run with a six-on-five goal at the 4:57-mark. Fordham answered with nine unanswered goals in a run that bridged halftime.
Lee and freshman
Phillip Long scored back-to-back goals in a 20-second span to halt the run with 3:07 to go in the third. Lee and Long answered a Rams' score with two of their own to make it a 21-6 game late in the quarter. Fordham then scored three straight to push out to a 24-6 lead just 34 seconds into the fourth. Junior
Dado Soares and Long answered with back-to-back goals, but the Rams got four in a row to make it a 28-8 game late. Lee capped the scoring with a man-up goal with 1:27 to go to account for the final score.
Lee led the Blue Jays with four goals and five points, while Long added a hat trick and two steals. Soares chipped in three points (1g, 2a) and two drawn ejections.
In the nightcap, Wagner scored the game's first five goals before junior
Quint Steffey got JHU on the board with 4:31 to play in the second. That sparked a 3-1 run for the Jays as they pulled within 6-3 just 90 seconds later. The Seahawks responded with back-to-back scores to push the lead back to five but a six-on-five goal from Lee made it an 8-4 game at the half.
Long opened the third quarter with an even-strength score and the lead was down to three. Wagner answered with a 6-1 run, that spanned more than nine minutes, to take a 14-6 lead with 5:04 to play in the game. Senior
Ian Raley and Long scored twice in 30 seconds to stop the run. The Seahawks had the final say however, scoring twice in the final four minutes to grab the 16-8 win.
Long totaled four points (3g, 1a) and two blocks to pace the Blue Jays. Lee added two scores and four ejections drawn, while junior
Daniel Palfi also drew four ejections and handed out two assists. Senior
Mark Poisler tallied three points (1g, 2a) and sophomore
Ethan Babel had two helpers and two blocks. Sophomore
Chris Poisler posted a career-high 12 saves.
Hopkins returns to action on Saturday, September 28 with games versus MIT and Brown in Providence, RI.
Notes: Raley is now tied for 10
th in JHU history with 25 career blocks.
