BALTIMORE, MD – The 129^th edition of the greatest rivalry in college lacrosse fittingly came down the final seconds.
 
Up 9-8 with less than 30 seconds remaining coming out of a timeout, the Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team got the defensive stand it needed to hold off visiting Maryland that locked up an eighth win on the season for the Blue Jays.

What else did they secure with their third regular season win against the Terps in the last four years?
 
How about a share of a third Big Ten regular season title in the last four years, possession of the coveted Rivalry Trophy and the top seed in the upcoming Big Ten Tournament.
 
Not a bad haul on a picture-perfect spring afternoon in front of a crowd of 7,508 for sure, but it certainly didn't come easily.
 
The Blue Jays (8-4, 3-2 B1G) xtended a one-goal lead early in the fourth quarter with back-to-back goals in a four-minute span before the period was seven minutes old.  Chuck Rawson worked to the middle and fired home a 12-yarder to give the Jays a 7-5 lead and Matt Collison added a one-handed runner down the middle at the 8:28 mark to make it 8-5.
 
Maryland, as it did all day, answered.  Elijah Stobaugh picked the top corner on a wing dodge less than a minute after Collison scored and Aidan Aitken found a cutting Leo Johnson just off the crease three minutes after that to make it a one-goal game as the clock dripped towards the four-minute mark.
 
Maryland would win the ensuing faceoff, but Blue Jay goalie Oran Gelinas turned away an Eric Spanos offering and the Blue Jays went the other way and turned to Collison, their three-time All-American.

Collison worked to his left hand in the middle of the field and blew home a low laser that gave the Blue Jays a 9-7 lead with 2:28 on the clock.
 
The Terps would cut the two-goal deficit in half with 40 seconds remaining when Johnson got inside the defense on the wing and hit a low-to-high runner from five yards.
 
The Terps won the ensuing faceoff and called timeout with 32.7 second showing.  Out of the timeout, Spanos fired one wide, a Chris Lyons shot was blocked and a final offering from Lyons hit the post with nine seconds remaining before a loose ball push in the final moments gave possession to the Blue Jays and sealed the victory.
 
The late three-goal lead was the second three-goal cushion the Blue Jays enjoyed on the day as they scored three times in a span of just over three minutes early in the second quarter to quickly turn a 2-2 tie into a 5-2 advantage.  Jimmy Ayers jump-started the spree with his second of the game at the 13:48 mark and Quintan Kilrain and Collison added strikes of their own to give the Blue Jays a three-goal lead they would carry into the break.
 
Maryland would score three of the first four goals of the second half, the last of those a Spanos strike just 73 seconds into the fourth quarter that made it 6-5.  That score would hold until Rawson's goal 66 seconds later that made it 7-5; Rawson's goal was the first of the six that would be scored in the final 13 minutes.  Playing from behind and pressing, the Terps would outshoot the Blue Jays 17-3 in the fourth quarter, but Gelinas made four saves and the Blue Jay defense had one final stand in it to seal the title-clinching victory.
 
Johns Hopkins Notes of Interest
• Collison paced the Blue Jays with three goals and one assist, while Ayers and Rawson both added two goals.
• Gelinas posted 14 saves with four in the first, second and fourth quarters; he has posted 12 or more saves six times this season.
• The Blue Jay defense held Maryland scoreless for stretches of 11:48 and 17:10 during the game; JHU has held the opposition scoreless for a stretch of 10 minutes or longer 19 times this season.
• This was the Blue Jays' fourth consecutive one-goal game and the 16^th one-goal game for Johns Hopkins since the start of the 2024 season.
 
Maryland Notes of Interest
• Johnson scored a team-high three goals and Braden Erksa added two assists.  Those were the only two multi-point producers for the Terps.
• Brian Ruppel posted 12 saves in goal for Maryland with four in each of the first three quarters.
• Maryland won 13-of-21 faceoffs on the day with Henry Dodge (7-of-11) and Jonah Carrier (6-of-10) combining to take all 21.
• The Terps held slight advantages in shots (41-37) and ground balls (28-25).
 
Up Next
With the top seed secured in the upcoming Big Ten Tournament, the Blue Jays earn a bye into the semifinals and will play the winner of the quarterfinal game between Ohio State and Michigan.  The semifinals will take place on April 30 at Rutgers with Johns Hopkins scheduled to play at 3 pm (BTN) in the final semifinal.
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