BALTIMORE, MD – Johns Hopkins scored twice in each half to beat visiting Ursinus 4-2 on Senior Day and clinch the top seed in next week's Centennial Conference Tournament Friday night. The Blue Jays end the regular season with an 11-4-2 overall record and a 7-1-1 mark in the CC. Meanwhile, the Bears slip to 8-7-2 overall and 5-3-1 in the conference.
Hopkins is the number one seed in the Centennial Conference Tournament for the ninth time since the tournament's inception in 2001. Five of those have come under head coach
Craig Appleby.
The Bears struck first, scoring midway through the first half to grab the early lead. Mathias Stegner sent a long clearing pass deep into the Blue Jays' end. Joseph Kmetz collected the pass, dribbled into the right side of the box and then fired a left-footed shot into the upper right corner in the 23
rd minute.
Hopkins nearly drew level in the 35
th minute when a
Connor Wilkes' header seemed ticketed for the bottom right corner. An Ursinus defender was able to clear the ball away to keep the score at 1-0.
Late in the first half, the Blue Jays then struck twice in a 75-second span to quickly turn the deficit into a one-goal lead. An Ursinus defender attempted to clear a corner kick, but the ball went right to
Rohan Aggarwal, who fired it back into the box.
Jason Pan got a foot on it to redirect it into the right side of the goal to tie the game in the 39
th minute.
The tie game lasted all of 75 seconds before the Blue Jays scored again.
Jacob Sardinha took a pass from
Rishi Pathak near midfield, dribbled around a Bear and then played the ball into the box.
Dusty Dwyer ran on to the ball, took one touch to settle and then slotted a low shot past Josiah Moore to put the home team on top.
The Bears battled back, tying the game in the 76
th minute when they earned a penalty kick. Matthew McFadden took the kick for Ursinus, putting the ball top center to tie the game at two. As it turned out, that was Ursinus' final shot of the game.
Once again, the tie score stood for just a short time.
Juan Bruzzone headed home a corner from Wilkes in the 80
th minute to put JHU 3-2. Wilkes was then on the receiving end of a
Lamine Camara throw-in, and he blasted a shot inside the left post in the 84
th minute to stake Hopkins to a 4-2 lead.
Hopkins earns a first-round bye in the conference tournament and will host a semifinal on Friday, November 6.
