NORTON, MA – Second-ranked Johns Hopkins held on for an 11-10 win over ninth-ranked Augustana on Sunday in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) play. The Blue Jays improve to 19-5 overall and finish the conference slate with an unbeaten record (8-0) for the first time in program history. The Vikings fall to 14-7 overall and 7-1 in the MPSF.
Luke Mendelsohn scored to put the Blue Jays up 11-9 with 53 ticks on the clock, but the Vikings drew an exclusion on the ensuing possession. James Davis converted on the extra-man opportunity to make it a one goal game with 45 seconds to play. Hopkins had a chance to push its lead back to two 23 seconds later with a five-meter opportunity, but Declan Hutton made the save. Oskar Bannister had one last shot for Augustana, but
Kyle Pearson knocked it away.
Andrew Lee scored just 14 seconds in to give Hopkins the early lead, but Augustana answered with three in a row and took a 3-1 lead into the second.
Mason Hofmann scored on a five-meter early in the second, but Rhys Lomax scored 40 seconds later and the Vikings led 4-2.
Ben Lucas and
Phillip Long then scored back-to-back goals and the score was knotted at four with 3:53 to go in the half.
Mark Addison and James Davis sandwiched goals around an
Iason Mihalopoulos score and Augustana led 6-5 just 52 seconds into the third.
Alec Baker scored at the 5:50-mark to spark a 5-1 run to put the Blue Jays up 10-7 just over eight minutes later. Four Blue Jays scored during the run, which was capped by back-to-back Hofmann scores.
The Vikings weren't going away, getting goals from Bannister and Addison to slice the deficit to one at the 2:00-mark. That set the stage for a thrilling last two minutes between the top two teams in the conference.
Hofmann (3g) and Baker (1g, 2a) led the Blue Jays with three points each. Hofmann also blocked a pair of shots and had a steal. Mendelsohn added two goals and three steals.
Andrew Lee drew five exclusions to go with a score. Pearson finished with nine saves and four steals.
Ben Lucas tallied two points (1g, 1a) and one block and has 19 blocks on the season, tying the program record for a freshman.
Hopkins wraps up the regular season on Sunday, November 16 against Salem. The non-conference contest is scheduled for an 11:00 am start at Barbara & Jerry Procton Pool.
