BALTIMORE, Md. —  Two years ago, Max Hewitt (Sr / M / Denver, Colo.) scored 4 goals against Johns Hopkins, including the game-tying and game-winning targets just 49 seconds apart, to lead the Navy men's lacrosse team to its first victory at Homewood Field since 1969. On Friday night, Hewitt once again answered the call. He dipped inside of his defender and tip-toed his way along the crease before punching in the game-winning goal 44 seconds into overtime to lead the Mids (4-3, 1-1 Patriot League) to a 10-9 victory over #8 Johns Hopkins (5-3, 0-0 Big Ten) at Homewood Field.

Zach Hayashi (Fr / North Potomac, Md.) won perhaps the biggest faceoff of his young career to begin the overtime frame. Navy had numbers on its side when Xavier Arline (Sr / A / Wading River, N.Y.) fired off a quick shot that went just wide, but the Mids backed it up and retained possession. Navy set up its offense and Dane Swanson (Sr / M / St. Mary's City, Md.) threw the outlet to Hewitt who set up at the top right-hand side of the box where he saw a path around graduate defenseman Beaudan Szuluk and targeted what would be the game-winner. After video review, the officials confirmed the initial call on the field and awarded the Mids the go-ahead goal.

"This is one of the hardest places to play. I think Johns Hopkins is a great team. To go down like that and bounce back and fight like that ... I'm just proud of them," said fifth-year Navy head coach Joe Amplo. "I felt like we were playing good in-the-box defense, but we gave them some opportunities early. Failed clears, they get one, they kind of scored in weird ways, off the rebound. But I just felt like we could guard them. I saw it, John (Orsen) saw it and he kept to the game plan. We made some small adjustments, but we kind of stifled them because our guys stepped up and played really well on the ball. That's a credit to our kids."

The first quarter of the game was all Johns Hopkins. In fact, the Blue Jays built an early 6-1 lead before Navy began to chip away.

The first of a five-goal run began with Evan Conway's (Jr / M / Charleston, S.C.) first-collegiate goal off an assist from Roman LaRocco (Jr / M / Mt. Airy, Md.) with 2:55 remaining in the opening quarter. Navy closed to within one (6-5) at the half, as Navy ripped three-straight goals, including a pair by Swanson.

The Mids came out of the locker room with the same intensity with which it left off, as Hayashi won the opening draw and flew straight to the cage where he unleashed for his first-collegiate goal to knot the game up for the first time.

After holding Johns Hopkins scoreless since the 3:05 mark in the first quarter, Blue Jays midfielders Johnathan Peshko and Matt Collison worked together for a nifty goal by Collison at 10:24 in the third to put JHU up once again at 7-6.

Navy answered with a transition goal that began with the defense successfully clearing the ball, getting it to mid-field for co-captain Jackson Peters (Sr / M / Darien, Conn.). Peters ran the play to perfection as he found Arline for wicked crankshot from 15 yards out to spark a 3-0 run by the Mids.

Swanson scored his third of the evening on what appeared to be an unlikely goal off an assist from Mac Haley (So / M / Shady Side, Md.) with 3:16 left in the third. His shot, however, made its way through the legs of All-American goalkeeper Chayse Ierlan and the Mids took their first lead of the game at 8-7. Navy closed out the half with a two-goal lead off another transition goal, this time Peters found Henry Tolker (Jr / A / Catonsville, Md.) for the low-to-low lefty shot.

Navy's defense again held the Blue Jays off the scoreboard for early 20 minutes before Collison found Degnon at the 6:03 mark in the fourth quarter to trim the Mids' lead to one (9-8). Johns Hopkins evened the score Navy was slow to slide to Peshko and he buried his shot past Navy netminder Dan Daly (So / Wayne, N.J.).

"He made some great saves," added Amplo. "I think he probably would have liked one of those back late, but he stole a few for us. He was steady between the pipes. He's a good goalie and he played wise beyond his years today."

The Mids had a few opportunities to win the game in overtime, including a beauty by Hewitt that ricocheted off the crossbar with 1:01 left in regulation. Hewitt, however, would make good on his opportunity in overtime.

Friday night's contest marked just the sixth time (2000, 2004, 2005, 2010, 2016) in the 93-game history that the game was decided in overtime and only the second win (2010) by the Mids in the extra frame.

Seven different players accounted for the Mids' 10 goals, including three by Swanson and two by Tolker. Swanson has score all 11 of his goals this season in the last 3 contests (5 at Boston U., 3 at Lehigh, 3 at Johns Hopkins), while Tolker has punched in nine of his 13 goals during that same time frame.

While Navy was credited with just six caused turnovers, its defensive unit did a fantastic job of recovering from a slow start and shut the high-powered offense of Johns Hopkins down. After allowing six goals in the first quarter, it allowed just three goals over the final 45-plus minutes of action. Daly played one of his strongest games between the pipes and got hot in the fourth quarter where he made stops on five of the Blue Jays' 11 shots, closing out the game with a career-high tying 12 saves.

Once against Hayashi played a solid game, winning 13 of the 23 draws (56.5) and grabbing seven ground balls. He is now just two wins shy of becoming only the third Navy player to reach 100 wins in his freshman season.

Johns Hopkins was led by Degnon's three goals and Hunter Chauvette's pair. Degnon, who scored the game's first goal at 12:41, extended his streak of consecutive games with a goal to a nation's best 38 in a row. Ierlan finished with 9 saves, while defenseman Scott V. Smith recorded three caused turnovers.

Remarkably, Johns Hopkins' three losses this season have come by a combined three goals, dropping overtime decisions to Denver (13-12) and Navy (10-9), along with a one-goal loss (14-13) against Syracuse a week ago.

The night ended just as wild as it began. Navy experienced bus issues en route to the game, forcing the game time to push back 30 minutes.

"Adversity is part of athletics and it's part of these kids' lives on a daily basis. We certainly dealt with that through a lot of stuff early in the season. But when you show up at Homewood Field and the lights are on and you are playing John Hopkins, it doesn't matter how you got here, what matters is you are here. I think our guys took full advantage of that moment and that's a great lesson for them to learn."

There will be little time for celebration for the Mids, as they will be back in action on Tuesday evening when they play host to Villanova. The game is slated for a 7:00 pm faceoff at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium and will be streamed live on ESPN+ with Pete Medhurst and Joe Miller on the call. Additionally, WNAV 1430 AM / 99.9 FM will carry the game live.

### Go Navy ###