BALTIMORE, MD – Visiting Rutgers scored the first five goals of the second half to turn a one-goal deficit into a four-goal lead and the Scarlet Knights never let the 11^th-ranked Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team get closer than three in the fourth quarter of an 11-8 victory at Homewood Field Saturday afternoon.  The Scarlet Knights improve to 5-5 overall and 1-0 in the Big Ten, while the Blue Jays slip to 6-3 overall and 0-1 in the Big Ten.

Johns Hopkins led 6-5 at the half, but the Knights needed just 15 seconds of the third quarter to flip the script as they scored twice off faceoffs to grab a 7-6 lead that they would never relinquish.  A quick restart after a violation on the half-opening faceoff led to a Colin Kurdyla strike and Matthew Paolatto won the ensuing faceoff to himself and scored on the run to give Rutgers the one-goal lead.
 
Colin Kelly then scored two straight for Rutgers – over a span of just under 10 minutes – to push the lead to 9-6 at the end of the third quarter.  He netted the first of those two slightly more than three minutes after the Paolatto strike and then ended the third quarter by beating the shot clock from 10 yards to account for the three-goal lead entering the final period.  Rutgers outshot the Blue Jays just 9-8 in the game-turning quarter and Oran Gelinas made three saves in the period, but Cardin Stoler made a pair of saves to keep Hopkins.
 
The margin was four just over three minutes into the final period after Haydn Sommer's unassisted tally at the 11:58 mark and the 10-6 score held until late in the game when Hunter Chauvette and Charlie Iler wrapped Blue Jay goals around a Colin Zeller strike for Rutgers to account for the 11-8 final score.
 
After falling behind by a goal early in the first quarter, the Blue Jays found their rhythm midway through the period when they struck for three goals in a four-minute span to grab a 3-1 lead.
 
Brooks English and Sean Crogan scored in a span of 90 seconds to quickly turn the one-goal deficit into a one-goal lead as the Blue Jays twice took advantage of the 'Knights in the substitution game and Iler added the first of his three on the day off a feed from Chauvette.
 
Haydn and Iler traded goals in the first six minutes of the third quarter before Aiello and Sommer both scored off good ball movement to pull the Knights even at 4-4 midway through the period.  Sommer's goal came shortly after Rutgers killed off a Blue Jay extra-man opportunity and Kurdyla scored off the the faceoff following Sommer's goal to give Rutgers a one-goal lead.
 
Johns Hopkins forced the third tie of the first half when Chauvette rifled a pass to the crease that co-captain Dylan Bauer was able to stuff home in traffic and junior Matt Collison bulled his way to the middle of the field and beat Stoller from 10 yards to give the Blue Jays the 6-5 lead the half.
 
The lead lasted just seven seconds into the third quarter before Kurdyla's goal that pulled Rutgers even.  Eight seconds later, Paolatto gave Rutgers the lead it would never surrender.
 
Iler (3g) and Chauvette (1g, 2a) led the way offensively for the Blue Jays, who also got a 13-of-22 effort the X from senior Logan Callahan.  Callahan added 10 ground balls and Gelinas posted nine saves in his second career start.
 
Six different players registered multi-point games for Rutgers with Sommer (3g, 1a) Paolatto (1g, 2a), Kelly (2g, 1a) and Kurdyla (2g, 1a) pacing the balanced attack.  Paolatto also won 10-of-21 faceoffs and added six ground balls and Stoller registered 10 saves, including five in the second half when he allowed just two goals.
 
Notes of Interest
• The Blue Jay defense held Rutgers scoreless for stretches of 16:34 and 10:47.  JHU has held the opposition scoreless for a period of 10 minutes or longer 17 times this season; 11 of those 17 droughts have been 14 minutes or longer.
• Iler has at least three points in each of the last four games and Collison (11 games), English (9) and Bauer (9) all extended their point-scoring streaks to nine or more.
 
Up Next
Johns Hopkins will return to action on Sunday, March 29 when the Blue Jays travel to Michigan to take on the Wolverines (2 pm / BTN).