BALTIMORE, MD – The Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team found itself in an early three-goal deficit, later built a four-goal lead and then, as it seems is always the case when the Blue Jays and Virginia get together, the game came down the final seconds.
 
When the dust settled, the wind-blown dust at gusty Homewood Field that is, it was the Blue Jays grabbing a 13-12 victory in the 99^th meeting in series history.  The 23^rd one-goal game among the 99, including the 14^th in the last 32 meetings, was sealed only when Blue Jay defenseman Quintan Kilrain scooped up an errant Virginia pass in the final seconds and tossed the ball skyward to kill the clock.
 
With the win, the Blue Jays improve to 5-1, pick up their third one-goal win of the season and retain the Doyle Smith Cup, which has been presented to the winner of the Hopkins-Virginia regular season game each year since 2006.  With the loss, the Cavaliers slip to 2-3.
 
As noted, the Cavaliers, came out firing and built a 5-2 lead before the game was 13 minutes old.  A pair of McCabe Millon goals and one goal and one assist from Truitt Sunderland sparked the early Cavalier spurt.
 
It took just under six minutes of game time for the Blue Jays to pull even as a Matt Collison goal late in the first quarter and back-to-back Hunter Chauvette strikes in a span of just 61-seconds early in the second quarter knotted the game at 5-5.
 
The Cavaliers would grab an 8-7 lead at the break by scoring three of the final five goals of the half with Sunderland scoring twice in that run; Blue Jay strikes from Chuck Rawson and Stuart Phillips accounted for Hopkins' two goals during that time.
 
The game changed after Virginia grabbed a 9-7 lead on an unassisted Ryan Colsey goal just over three minutes into the second half.  After allowing nine goals in the first 34 minutes, the Blue Jay defense dialed in and held the Cavaliers scoreless for the next 19:05. During that time, the Cavaliers were harassed into six turnovers, Blue Jay goalie Luke Staudt ended three possessions with saves, there was one shot clock violation and the Blue Jays backed up an errant UVA shot to end another.
 
While the Cavaliers were empty on 11 consecutive possessions, the Blue Jay offense was heating up at the other end.  Chauvette answered Colsey's goal when he stuffed home a nifty cross-crease feed from Collison and co-captain Dylan Bauer pulled the Jays even midway through the period when he got inside his defender and got to the goal, where he beat UVA goalie Kyle Morris from in close.
 
The 9-9 tie lasted for just under five minutes before Chauvette added his fourth of the game at the 3:51 mark of the third quarter to give the Jays their first lead of the game and Charlie Iler scored the first goal of his Blue Jay career 61 seconds later on a dodge from behind the goal.  Another Chauvette goal in the final two minutes gave the Jays a 12-9 lead entering the final period.
 
The three-goal cushion held for just over seven minutes before Collison and Bauer connected to give Hopkins a 13-9 lead with 7:48 on the clock.
 
Any level of comfort by the Blue Jay faithful was gone 18 seconds later when Griffin Schutz stuck one under the crossbar on the run in an unsettled situation.  Millon then rifled home his third of the game in transition just 76 seconds after the Schutz goal to make it a two-goal game.
 
The two-goal lead held for more than five minutes before the Blue Jays were flagged for an illegal bodycheck with 46 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.  The Cavaliers were more deliberate than perhaps expected, but off a restart from the wing, Sunderland got free in the slot and Thomas Mencke found him to make it a one-goal game with 10.1 seconds on the clock.
 
After a short battle for possession on the ensuing faceoff, it was Virginia's Ben Wayer who came up with the ground ball, but his pass near midfield didn't hit its mark and Kilrain came up with ground ball to seal the victory.
 
Chauvette paced the Blue Jays with a career-high five goals, while Bauer (2g, 2a) matched his career-high for points.  Iler saw the most extensive playing time of his career and scored the one goal and added two assists for three points; Collison (1g, 2a) and Phillips (1g, 1a) also added multi-point games for Johns Hopkins.  Staudt posted 10 saves in goal for the Blue Jays, who got another strong performance at the X from senior Logan Callahan, who went 14-of-23 with six ground balls and one assist on the day.
 
Sunderland (4g, 2a) and Millon (3g, 1a) led the way offensively for Virginia.  Schutz (1g, 1a) and Jack Walshe (1g, 1a) also added multi-point games, while Anthony Ghobriel was 12-of-23 on faceoffs with five ground balls and one assist.  Kyle Morris registered eight saves in goal and UVA held advantages in shots (36-30) and ground balls (27-18).
 
Notes of Interest
• The scoreless stretch of 19:05 for Virginia marks the 11^th time in six games that the JHU defense has held the opposition scoreless for 10 minutes or longer and the seventh time the unit has held the opposition scoreless for 14 minutes or longer.
• Johns Hopkins now leads the all-time series against the Cavaliers, 63-35-1.  The 99 games are the second-most for the Blue Jays against any opponent.
• The rally from three-goals down marks the second time this season that Hopkins has come from three goals down to win a game (Loyola).
 
Up Next
Johns Hopkins will return to action on Sunday, March 9 when the Blue Jays travel to Syracuse to take on the Orange (2 pm / ESPNU).