ANNAPOLIS, Md. // The ninth-ranked Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team (6-3, 0-0 Big Ten) used a 4-1 run over the final 8:30 to earn a 12-9 victory over Navy (3-5, 0-2 Patriot League) Friday evening at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The game featured six ties and three lead changes before Johns Hopkins put together its run midway through the final frame that featured a goal and a pair of assists by rookie midfielder Matt Collison.
Johns Hopkins took the early lead, as Russell Melendenz (A / Jr) found Brendan Grimes (M / Jr) for the game's first goal at 11:11 and sparked a 3-1 run by the Blue Jays. Navy answered with back-to-back goals, including a goal by
Carter Ash (A / So / Leesburg, Va.) off an assist from
Xavier Arline (A / Jr / Wading River, N.Y.) with just 7 seconds remaining in the opening quarter to knot the score at 3-all.
Navy made it three in a row when
Max Hewitt (M / Jr / Denver, Colo.) sent a skip pass to a wide-open
Mac Haley (A / Fr / Shady Side, Md.) who drilled his second goal of the evening to give the Mids their first lead in the contest at 4-3 with 10:27 to go in the second quarter. The Blue Jays evened the score once again when Johnathan Peshko (M / Jr) slipped his defender and punched his shot past Navy keeper
Pat Ryan (Sr / Groton, Mass.).
Johns Hopkins took the lead at 5-4 just over a minute into the second half when Melendez found seam and targeted his 8-yarder.
The two teams traded goals over the next six minutes before Navy put together back-to-back goals to push ahead 7-6. Arline scored the equalizer in transition off a
Jackson Bonitz (D / Jr / Shrewsbury, Pa.) outlet before
Sam Dracobly (M / Sr / Seattle, Wash.) used a little misdirection before wrapping around the right side of the cage to scored his second goal of the season.
The Blue Jays answered Navy's two-goal run with one of their own. Left all alone, Garrett Degnon (A / Gr) buried an extra-man goal to kick off the run, while Cameron Chauvette (Jr / A) sent his shot over the shoulder of Ryan with 54.1 seconds remaining to give Johns Hopkins an 8-7 lead heading into the final frame.
Navy played the transition game perfectly when Degnon's shot ricocheted off short-stick defensive midfielder
Henry Rentz's (Sr / Edgewater, Md.) stick and
Jackson Peters (SSDM / Jr / Darien, Conn.) picked up the ground ball and sprinted down the field. Grad transfer Alex Mazzone was forced to slide to cut off Peters, leaving Haley all alone for what would be his third goal of the game and pull the Mids even with the Blue Jays at 8-8.
Johns Hopkins took the lead for good at the 8:16 mark when a saved shot by Grimes bounced into the stick of Ryan Evans and Evans stuck his shot from the crease to put the Blue Jays up 9-8. They extended their lead to two just 42 seconds later when Collison fired in a tough shot from 12 yards out on the run.
Navy pulled back to within one at the 4:20 mark when
Henry Tolker (So / M / Catonsville, Md.) knocked down a clearing pass from Blue Jays keeper Tim Marcille and promptly picked up the loose ball and found
Jack Flaherty (Fr / M / Massapequa, N.Y.) for the goal.
Johns Hopkins answered by scoring the final two goals of the game, including the final goal at 1:22 by Melendenz that marked the first and only time either team led by more than two goals in the contest.
The final stats were nearly even across the board - shots (JHU 39, Navy 38), ground balls (JHU 27, Navy 29), saves (JHU 13, Navy 13), turnovers (JHU 20, Navy 16). The one area Navy clearly had the advantage was in the faceoff game where
Anthony Ghobriel (So / Dallas, Texas) won 16 of the 25 draws (64.0), while the Blue Jays desperately tried three different faceoff men to neutralize Ghobriel. He has now won 16 or more faceoffs in three of Navy's last four contest.
Seven different players accounted for Navy's 9 goals with Haley leading the way with his second hat trick of the season. Hewitt turned in a goal and two assists, while Arline finished with a goal and an assist.
After going back and forth between goalkeepers, Ryan stepped up and played a phenomenal game where he made 13 saves, including 9 on 23 Johns Hopkins shots in the opening half.
Eight players turned in goals for the Blue Jays, including Degnon, Melendenz, Evans and Peshko who all had three apiece. Marcille, meanwhile, made 13 stops between the pipes.
Navy will be back in action on Tuesday when it travels to Pennsylvania to play 10th-ranked Villanova at Villanova Stadium. Faceoff is slated for 4:00 pm with live coverage on FloSports and WNAV 1430 AM / 99.9 FM.
### Go Navy ###
