CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – For the 100^th time, Johns Hopkins and Virginia met in men's lacrosse on Saturday afternoon.  For the 19^th time, the Doyle Smith Cup was up for grabs.
 
That's a lot of games between two of the sport's blue bloods.  No way the Blue Jays and Cavaliers could give the nearly 2,800 fans in attendance on a picture-perfect day something they'd never seen before.
 
For almost all of them, that's probably true.
 
It's likely only a handful of those fans were also in Charlottesville in 2018 when the Blue Jays visited Klockner Stadium.  If they were, they were the only ones who'd seen this script before.  In fact, those are the only people in the history of the Johns Hopkins lacrosse program who have seen this script play out.
 
Down 11-4 after Virginia's McCabe Millon scored with 9:22 on the third-quarter clock, the Blue Jays rallied.  And rallied some more.  And when they were done rallying, they had completed the just the second seven-goal comeback in program history.
 
You know when the other one was?  Yup, 2018.  At Virginia.  On that day, the Blue Jays trailed 9-2 at the half.  That one was remarkable.  I know because I was there.  This one felt even more magical, but maybe that's just the emotion of the moment.
 
Regardless, the rally came and the Cup is coming back to Baltimore.
 
The 11-4 deficit was down to 11-8 with still more than three minutes remaining in the third period.  An unassisted Jimmy Ayers goal started the four-goal spurt and Hunter Chauvette wrapped a pair of goals – his third and fourth of the game – around a Brooks English 10-yarder to bring the Jays within three for the first time since early in the second quarter.
 
Staggered, but still up three, the Cavaliers got what appeared to be a momentum-halting goal in transition from long pole Tommy Snyder with 87 seconds left in the third to give the Cavaliers as 12-8 lead with 15 minutes remaining.
 
After scoring eight goals in 45 minutes, the Blue Jays found the net six times – six straight times – to turn the four-goal deficit into a stunning 14-12 lead with less than 90 seconds to play.
 
Ayers needed just under two minutes to pull the Jays within 12-9 as he scored from in-tight off a quick feed from Matt Collison. There was still plenty of time on the clock when Ayers scored with 13:01 to play, but seven long minutes would drip off the clock before the final spurt.
 
In those seven minutes, the Blue Jays got two big Oran Gelinas saves, but also had a crucial failed clear that could have sealed their fate.
 
Instead, Chauvette fired home his fifth of the game off a feed from English with 5:37 on the clock, Ayers added his third of the game 62 seconds later to make it a one-goal game and Warry Colhoun scored his first – not his first of the game, the first of his career – 27 seconds after that to pull the Jays even.
 
When English found Chauvette alone just off the crease with 2:37 to play, the Jays had the lead for the first time on the day and Collison added an insurance goal with 81 ticks remaining to cap what had now become a stunning 10-1 run.
 
Game over, right?  Wrong.

Virginia got one back with 58 seconds remaining when Truitt Sunderland quick-sticked home a feed from Brendan Millon and the Cavaliers called timeout with 42 seconds remaining after winning the faceoff after Sunderland's goal.

Out of the timeout, the Cavaliers got off two shots, both by McCabe Millon.  One sailed high, one was saved by Gelinas.  When Luke Martin scooped up the ground ball and later tossed the ball high in the air after a loose-ball push by the Cavaliers, the rally was complete.
 
A historic comeback in a historic game.
 
It sure didn't start the way it ended, at least for the Blue Jays.
 
It had taken less than 10 minutes for the Cavaliers to grab a 5-1 lead early on as Ryan Duenkel got to the goal from the wing just 46 seconds in to spring the early spurt.  Duenkel would score twice, as would Ryan Colsey, during the early 5-1 Cavalier spurt, which was capped by an extra-man strike from Colsey after Blue Jay goalie Dash Lamitie was called for an unnecessary roughness penalty.
 
The Blue Jays twice trimmed the first-half margin to three at 5-2 and 6-3 as a highlight-reel laser from Chauvette halted the game-opening 5-1 Cavalier run and he later stuck an extra-man goal just over four minutes into the second quarter to make it 6-3.
 
Johns Hopkins had a golden chance to make it 6-4 just under five minutes after Chauvette's extra-man goal, but Virginia goalie Kyle Morris was equal to a Collison offering and Colsey added his third of the game in a scramble situation off the ensuring clear attempt to push the margin to four.  He then assisted on a McCabe Millon goal with 4:12 on the first-half clock to account for an 8-3 score at the break.
 
The 8-3 lead was 11-4 after McCabe Millon's goal with 9:22 remaining in the third quarter. 
 
A seven-goal deficit.  In 1,435 all-time games entering Saturday's game, Johns Hopkins had exactly one comeback from a seven-goal deficit in those 1,435 games.
 
Game over, right?  Wrong.
 
Johns Hopkins Notes of Interest
• Chauvette tied his career high with six goals.
• Ayers finished with three goals and two assists for a career-best five points.
• The Blue Jays' first midfield of English, Collison and Chuck Rawson combined for two goals and seven assists.
• Gelinas came on after Lamitie's penalty and totaled 12 saves, including nine in the third and fourth quarters combined when JHU outscored Virginia, 11-5.
• Carter Kryszak went 7-of-12 on faceoffs and grabbed five ground balls.
• Reece DiCicco matched his own school record for CTs by a short stick with four and added five ground balls.
 
Virginia Notes of Interest
• Colsey (3g, 2a) and McCabe Millon (2g, 3a) led Virginia offensively with five points apiece, while Brendan Millon chipped in four points (2g, 2a).
• The Cavaliers won 19-of-30 faceoffs with Griff Meyer going 13-of-21 with seven ground balls.
• Kyle Morris posted six saves in goal for the Cavaliers, but just three in the second half and only one in the fourth quarter.
 
Up Next
Johns Hopkins will return to action on Saturday, March when the Blue Jays return to Homewood Field and welcome Syracuse to Baltimore (1 pm).
  Read Full Article