BALTIMORE, MD – Every game on the Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse schedule is not created equally.
Yes, each of the Blue Jays' regular season games carries the same weight – one win or one loss – in the record column, but Saturday's game against Michigan felt like it carried extra significance, especially for a relatively young Johns Hopkins team.
One year after the Blue Jays struggled through the Big Ten portion of their schedule, questions remained, even after a strong 5-2 start in non-conference play, as they opened league play against the Wolverines at Homewood Field. After all, all six Big Ten teams, regardless of how they performed to-date, entered the weekend, in some ways, with a clean slate.
While there are still four more Big Ten games remaining after Saturday's 14-8 win, consider the many of those questions answered.
The Blue Jays (6-2, 1-0 B1G) spotted the Wolverines an early 1-0 lead, then scored eight of the next nine goals and 10 of the next 12 to essentially put the game away midway through the third quarter. Sure, Michigan outscored the Blue Jays 5-4 in the fourth quarter to account for the 14-8 final score, but Johns Hopkins never allowed the Wolverines to get closer than five in the final 25 minutes.
A pair of juniors – attackman
Hunter Chauvette and midfielder
Chuck Rawson – led the way offensively as each scored four goals and added an assist to lead the way for an offense that turned out six players with multi-point games on the day.
The pair bookended a 4-1 run that quickly turned the early one-goal deficit into a 4-1 lead before the game was eight minutes old. Chauvette opened the spree at the 11:15 mark and Rawson capped it just four seconds shy of four minutes later.
Michigan's
Luke Shannehan then stuck one under the crossbar after his defender slipped along the goal line 82 seconds after Rawson scored, but Chauvette answered late in the period to make it 5-2 after the opening quarter.
The three-goal lead held for just under seven minutes in the second quarter before senior
Jameson Smith scored on a runner at the 8:01 mark for his first career goal and linemate
Sean Crogan spun his defender on the wing and fired home his third of the year four minutes later. Chauvette later completed his first-half hat trick to account for an 8-2 score at the break.
Michigan's scoreless drought reached more 25 minutes before
Adam Udell scored in transition at the 10:05 mark of the third quarter, but Rawson and Chauvette, as they did all day, countered as they fired home back-to-back goals midway through the period to give the Jays a game-best seven-goal lead (10-3).
The Wolverines (3-6, 0-1 B1G) scored twice in the first 69 seconds of the fourth quarter to grab the momentum, but
Matt Collison went top shelf three minutes after Udell scored and the teams would trade the final six goals of the game over the final 8:06 to account for the 14-8 final score.
A six-goal win in the Big Ten opener.
The victory counts the same as each of the previous five wins the Blue Jays had accumulated entering play on Saturday. For a young Blue Jay team, it felt like it counted for a little more.
Johns Hopkins Notes of Interest
• Rawson's four goals are a career high and his five points matched his personal best.
• Chauvette's four goals mark his 10
th career hat trick and the five points are one shy of his career high.
• Smith entered Saturday's game with no career points, but scored the one goal and added an assist.
• Crogan punched up the first two-goal game of his career.
•
Oran Gelinas posted nine saves in goal and
Joe Hobot won 10-of-17 faceoffs.
• Senior defenseman
Carson Brown picked up a career-best six ground balls, while junior defenseman
Luke Martin added four GBs and two caused turnovers.
• JHU has scored 13 or more goals in six of eight games this season.
• The Blue Jays held Michigan scoreless for a stretches of 25:13 and 10:19. The unit has now held the opposition scoreless for a stretch of 10 minutes or longer 12 times in eight games; seven of those stretches are 15 minutes or longer.
Michgan Notes of Interest
• Udell paced Michigan with three goals and Alex Gatto added one goal and one assist. They were the only two Wolverines to register multi-point games.
•
Taylor Hunter went the distance in goal and posted 10 saves.
•
Tay Rodriguez won 10-of-21 faceoffs and added five GBs and one goal.
Up Next
Johns Hopkins will return to action on Sunday, March 29 when the Blue Jays travel to Rutgers to take on the Scarlet Knights (12 pm) in a game that will air live on the Big Ten Network. Rutgers fell to Ohio State, 6-5, in overtime in Big Ten opener earlier today.
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Gallery: (3-21-2026) Men's Lacrosse vs. Michigan
