PISCATAWAY, NJ – Fifth three.
Everything the Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team does is focused on the 53 players on the team. Huddles are broken with the chant of "53". Each of those 53 players – regardless of their position or role – is trained and expected to be ready when their number is called.
In Thursday's Big Ten Semifinal against Michigan, there was another 53 that proved pivotal. That would be the 53
rd minute of the game. As in, that's when junior
Dan Sheppard first stepped on the field.
Sheppard, a reserve faceoff specialist for the Blue Jays, had watched his unit battle, but win just nine of the first 26 faceoffs of the game. He had also seen the Wolverines turn a 12-7 deficit into a 12-12 tie with a five-goal run that was capped with 8:09 on the clock; officially, that's 53
rd minute of the game.
Sheppard went out and promptly won the faceoff after
Alex Lobel's goal that knotted things up; 17 second later,
Hunter Chauvette gave the Blue Jays a 13-12 lead that they would never surrender.
Sheppard would win the faceoff after the Chauvette goal and Hopkins would cash in 70 seconds later with a
Brooks English goal. For good measure, Sheppard would win the next faceoff as well. While the Blue Jays didn't cash in on that possession, they never let Michigan dent the scoring column again and moved into Saturday's Big Ten Championship game with a 14-12 win.
The game was frenetic from the start. Exactly as nobody predicted that.
A back-and-forth first half saw the Blue Jays grab a one-goal lead at the break in what can only be termed a not-your-typical 2026 Big Ten game as the teams combined for 15 goals. If you've followed the league closely this season, you know that 15 matches or exceeds the total scored in many a Big Ten game in 2026.
Early on, the Blue Jays needed less than six minutes to grab a three-goal lead as
Matt Collison,
Jameson Smith and
Hunter Chauvette all scored in the opening 5:55 to prompt a Wolverine timeout.
Michigan still trailed by three (4-1) late in the first quarter before back-to-back strikes from
Bo Lockwood and
Adam Udell drew the Wolverines within 4-3 at the end of one.
The Blue Jays would build a trio of two-goal leads at 5-3, 6-4 and 7-5, but the Wolverines answered each time and were even at 7-7 after
Hunter Taylor and
Luke Shannehan struck in a three-minute span in the back half of the second quarter. A late
Chuck Rawson extra-man goal with 34.6 seconds remaining before the half gave the Blue Jays an 8-7 lead.
After the Shannehan goal at the 3:54 mark of the second quarter, the Bue Jay defense would hold the Wolverines scoreless for more than 17 minutes; during that time, Johns Hopkins would score five times, the Rawson goal late in the second quarter and four straight to open the second half to extend out to a game-best five-goal lead (12-7) with less than three minutes remaining in the third.
Four different players accounted for the four goals to open the third for the Blue Jays with
Jimmy Ayers igniting the spree just 61 seconds after the break, while Chauvette, Collison and
Erik Chick also struck during the spree.
For their part, the Wolverines had one great push left in them. A
Nick Roode unassisted goal less than a minute after the Chick goal sprung the five-goal Michigan run that saw four different players score over an eight-minute span with the Lobel goal knotting things up with 8:09 on the clock.
Enter Sheppard, officially, the 25th player on the Johns Hopkins team that made an appearance in Thursday's game. It was the 53
rd minute of the game when he stepped on the field.
Fifty three – that's an important number for this group of Blue Jays.
Johns Hopkins Notes of Interest
• Chauvette (3g, 2a) and Ayers (3g, 1a) both punched up hat tricks to pace a balanced Blue Jay offense. The hat trick is the sixth of the year for Chauvette and the third for Ayers.
• The Blue Jays' first midfield of Collison, Rawson and English combined for six goals and three assists as each finished with two goals and one assist on the day.
• Ten of the 14 goals the Blue Jays scored were assisted.
•
Reece DiCicco paced the Blue Jays with five GBs and two CTs. His 21 CTs continue to lead the nation among SSDMs and are now just four shy of the overall JHU single-season record of 25 (
Mike Pellegrino (2015)).
• JHU advances to the Big Ten title game for the fifth time (2015, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2026).
Michigan Notes of Interest
• The Wolverines got three goals and one assist from Roode and two goals and one assist from Shannehan.
• Taylor posted eight saves, had five GBs and scored what is believed to be the first goal by a Michigan goalie program history.
• Tay Rodriguez was 9-of-13 at the X with five GBs. Overall, the Wolverines won 17-of-26 at the dot.
Up Next
Johns Hopkins will take on the winner of the second semifinal between second-seeded Penn State and third-seeded Maryland in the Big Ten title game on Saturday, May 2 (12 pm | BTN).
- 30 -
Gallery: (4-30-2026) Men's Lacrosse vs. Michigan (B1G SF)
