UNIVERSITY PARK, PA – Johns Hopkins never led while the clock was running, but that didn't matter Thursday night.
Lacey Downey scored halfway through the first overtime to give Hopkins its first lead as the Blue Jays beat host and 19
th-ranked Penn State, 10-9. JHU improves to 13-3 and finishes the regular season at 6-2 in the Big Ten. PSU falls to 11-5 overall and 3-4 in the conference with one game left.
Overtime didn't look like a possibility as the Blue Jays trailed 9-7 and the clock dripped near the two-minute mark. But an
Ashley Langdon save followed by a Nittany Lions' errant pass gave the Blue Jays the ball. A quick clear and a foul led to a Downey eight-meter and she blew home her second of the game with 59.2 ticks on the clock.
Laurel Gonzalez won the ensuing draw and
Taylor Hoss hit
Ava Angello on the crease for the game-tying goal with 26.7 seconds to go and set the stage for overtime.
Penn State won the draw to open overtime but couldn't convert on the possession and a yellow card at 3:19 gave Hopkins the ball and the advantage. And the Blue Jays cashed in. Hoss hit Downey at the top of the fan and with time and room, she picked the right corner to win it for Hopkins.
This one had all the makings of a low-scoring game from the start. Payton Wainman sandwiched a pair of goals around an unassisted tally by Hoss and the Nittany Lions led 2-1 after the first.
Paige Willard then knotted the score at 11:25 in the second with an eight-meter goal. Maggie Rezza answered for Penn State three minutes later when she fired a shot inside the right post.
Downey used an Angello screen to get free and fired an absolute rocket under the crossbar from seven meters out midway through the second. Anna Salerno and Rezza then scored back-to-back goals in a 45-second span to put the home team on top 5-3 with 6:32 on the clock. Just 50 seconds later, the deficit was back to one when
Sienna Chirieleison went low-to-high on an eight-meter shot.
The score stood at 6-5 Nittany Lions for just over nine minutes, and it was the Blue Jays that broke through. In a near carbon copy of her first goal of the game, Hoss beat her defender down the right alley, tiptoed the crease and scored in-tight to knot the score at 7. Kelly MacKinney put Penn State back on top a little over six minutes later and then Erika Ho scored off a skip pass from MacKinney and it was 7-5 at the 1:30-mark.
Willard scored on a left-handed sidearm off the dodge to pull Hopkins back within one with 50.8 seconds left in the third. Less than two minutes into the fourth, Hoss scored on a behind-the-back shot off a Downey helper to tie the game for the fifth time. Just 56 seconds later, the Nittany Lions retook the lead on a Delaney Radin eight-meter. MacKinney pushed the lead back to two when she got free in the middle of the eight and fired home a pass from Ho at 5:24. As it turned out, the game was just getting started.
Hoss led the Blue Jays with a game-high five points (3g, 2a) and Downey added four (3g, 1a). The game-winner was Downey's second career overtime goal, both against Penn State. Willard scored a pair as the only other Blue Jay with a multi-point game.
Reagan O'Brien finished with seven caused turnovers and six ground balls.
Hannah Johnson and
Jillian McNaughton had two each while McNaughton also had three ground balls.
Laurel Gonzalez controlled a game-high eight draws and Langdon finished with eight saves.
Radin (1g, 2a), Ho (1g, 2a), MacKinney (2g, 1a) and Rocquette Allen (3a) all had three-point nights for the Nittany Lions. Emma Kelly finished with six draw controls and Sydney Manning notched nine saves.
Hopkins will travel to Michigan for the Big Ten Tournament, with the quarterfinals scheduled for Wednesday, April 22. JHU's seeding will be determined after Saturday's games.
Notes: O'Brien moved into second place in NCAA history for career caused turnovers (233) and needs to two tie the record • Gonzalez needs two draw controls to move into second in Johns Hopkins history for career draws • Hopkins has now won nine straight overtime games.
