BALTIMORE, Md. —  The Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team (5-2) used a 5-1 run to open the second half and take control of the game, as the Blue Jays captured a 14-10 victory over Navy (5-3) Saturday afternoon at Homewood Field. Navy came into the contest having won each of the last two games against Johns Hopkins at Homewood Field.

"I thought they (Johns Hopkins) were really sharp offensively today," said seventh-year Navy head coach Joe Amplo. "Their ball movement is so good. They are a great team. I know they are young, but they still have really good players. They were just better than us today, plain and simple. It was two good teams going after one another and they won.

"I thought we got to them in the second quarter and I was hoping that it would continue, but it just didn't. We had too many empty possessions in the third and then defensively I thought we were a little off. I'm kicking myself a little bit because we probably should have went to the zone earlier and probably should have rode them a little bit more in the first half because I didn't think they had an answer. I was holding it (the 10-man ride), you know three games in eight days and coming off illness, I wanted to make sure we had enough in the tank. But I wish we went to it once or twice in the first half. 

"Credit to our guys, they fought back, even in the fourth when we were down four or five we tried to creep back into it.  Good game, congrats to them, now it's all conference from here."

After a quiet opening quarter that saw Johns Hopkins take a 2-1 lead, the two teams exploded for a combined 9 goals in the second frame.

The Blue Jays went on a 3-1 run to begin the quarter, including back-to-back goals by senior middie Matt Collison who extended his consecutive point-scoring streak to 23 games and gave Johns Hopkins a 5-2 lead with 6:57 to go in the half.

Navy answered the call and put together a a 4-goal run to take its first lead of the game at 6-5. Paul Garza (Sr / M / Frederick, Md.) sparked the run at the 4:47 mark, going low to high and burying his shot just under the crossbar. Fifty-seven seconds later, co-captain Mac Haley (Sr / A / Shady Side, Md.) scored his first goal of the day, sweeping to his right and matching Collison's 23-game point-scoring streak. Less than 30 seconds later, Alec Gregorek (So / A / Wading River, N.Y.) went top shelf on JHU goalkeeper Oran Gelinas for his second of the day. Aydan DiRocco (So / M / Haverford, Pa.) capped the run with a beautifully-executed extra-man goal with Jack Ponzio (So / M / Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) finding DiRocco all alone on the crease with 1:21 remaining in the half.

Seconds later, the Mids looked as if they had pushed their lead to 7-5 on a pole-to-pole goal by AJ Marsh (Jr / D / Reisterstown, Md.) from Patrick Flaherty (So / LSM / Massapequa, N.Y.), but the goal was waved off after a Navy player mistakenly stepped onto the field and the Mids were offside. In turn, the ball was awarded to Johns Hopkins and Collison scored his third goal of the quarter with just 6.9 seconds remaining to knot the game at 6-6 going into the break.

Johns Hopkins came out of the locker room on fire, going on a 3-0 run over the first eight minutes of the frame and taking a three-goal lead (9-6).

Navy cut into the lead with 4:38 remaining in the third quarter when Ponzio cleared the ball up the middle of the field and ran straight to the goal without the defense collapsing.

The Blue Jays answered by going on a 3-1 run to end the quarter take a four-goal advantage (12-8).

Johns Hopkins scored a little over a minute into the fourth to take its largest lead of the game (13-8).

Navy, however, was not finished. Gregorek scored his third goal of the day and Haley punched in a goal off an assist from Marsh to close to within three (13-10) with 9:13 to go. 

The Mids were unable to keep the momentum in their favor as fatigue from playing their third game in eight days, player illness and traveling to and from Florida during the week began to set in. Navy committed 7 of its 18 turnovers in the final quarter, as Johns Hopkins went on to score the final goal to earn the 14-10 victory.

Gregorek led the Mids with 4 points on 3 goals and an assist. The first-year starter has now scored multiple goals in 8-consecutive games, including hat tricks in each of the last 3. Haley scored a pair of goals and moved into a tie for 22nd on Navy's career scoring list with 121. He is now just 2 points shy of entering the top 20. DiRocco also pitched in 2 goals for Navy, while Ponzio and Marsh finished the day with a goal and an assist. With his 2 points, Marsh became the top-scoring pole in Navy history. He has 20 points over his 3 seasons on 9 goals and 11 assists. Matt Rees previously held the record with 19 points on 15 goals and 4 assists. Meanwhile, Marsh's 9 goals are tied as the third most by a pole in school history.

Zach Hayashi (Jr / North Potomac, Md.) and Colin Shadowens (Sr / Severna Park, Md.) were terrific at the faceoff "x" where they combined to win 18 of the 28 draws. Hayashi was 9 for 15, while Shadowens won 9 of the 13 draws he took. Hayashi continues to close in on the No. 2 spot on Navy's all-time faceoff wins list, while moved into a tie for 13th with 156 wins over his 4 seasons.

Navy's defense was credited with just 3 caused turnovers in the contest, but held the Blue Jays to a handful of long stretches without a goal in the game. Dan Daly (Sr / Wayne, N.J.) helped organize the Mids' defense from between the pipes where he made 9 saves and allowed all 14 goals. Daly also made a jump to eighth on the Mids' all-time saves list, posting 443 over his career. It's the most saves since Ryan Kern's 465 saves from 2017-20.

Collison, Hunter Chauvette and Charlie Iler combined for 11 of the Blue Jays' 14 goals in the contest, while Gelinas closed out the game with 12 saves.

Navy will play its third-consecutive road game and return to Patriot League action when it travels to Easton, Pa. next Friday to face Lafayette. Faceoff is set for 7:30 pm at Fisher Stadium. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+, while the radio broadcast will be carried on 1430 WNAV .

### Go Navy ###