Nov. 14, 2015
WESTMINSTER, MD – Sixth-ranked Johns Hopkins got a school-record-tying four rushing touchdowns from junior Stuart Walters and the Blue Jays won their Centennial Conference-record 31st straight regular season game with a 49-24 victory at McDaniel Saturday afternoon. The Blue Jays never trailed in topping the Green Terror for the 15th straight time.
Johns Hopkins (10-0, 9-0 Centennial) had already secured the Centennial's automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA Playoffs and no worse than a share of the league title entering Saturday's game. Today's win gives the Blue Jays their fifth straight outright title and seventh in the last 11 years. Hopkins has won 11 outright for shared Centennial championships in the last 14 years.
The bracket for the NCAA Playoffs will be announced on Sunday at 6 pm.
Walters rushed 18 times for 103 yards and the four scores, which covered two, 10, three and one yard. He is the sixth Johns Hopkins player to rush for four touchdowns in a game and the first since Jonathan Rigaud did it at Ursinus in 2012. His four overall touchdowns also tied the school single-game record. This is the eighth time a Johns Hopkins player has rushed for four touchdowns in a game and the 12th time a Blue Jay player has scored four times.
Hopkins led just 7-3 early in the second quarter before scoring twice in a span of just over two minutes to break the game open. A 58-yard touchdown pass from Jonathan Germano to David Brookhart capped a two-play, 63- yard drive on the first play of the second quarter to make it 14-3.
After the Blue Jay defense forced a quick punt following Brookhart's touchdown, Hopkins took over its own 45 and needed just two plays to go 55 yards. A 45-yard pass from Brookhart to Brett Caggiano on first down set the stage for Walters' second touchdown of the game, this one from 10 yards out, that pushed the lead to 21-3.
The Green Terror (0-10, 0-9 CC) were within 21-10 with less than 30 seconds to play in the first half after they went 49 yards in 11 plays and got a one-yard touchdown run from Tayahd Campbell with 31 seconds remaining in the second quarter.
As it turned out, that was 26 seconds too much as Hopkins answered with a lightning-quick three-play, 70-yard drive that Germano highlighted with a 58-yard pass to Quinn Donaldson and finished with a seven-yard strike to senior Evan Adamo with just five seconds on the clock.
McDaniel made its final push early in the third quarter as the Terror took the opening possession 77 yards in 10 plays and got a 39-yard touchdown pass from Will Koester to Mike Oliveto to finish it off and pull within 28-17.
From there, the Blue Jays turned to Walters to polish off their next two drives as he scored his three and one-yard touchdowns on Johns Hopkins' next two possessions to give the Blue Jays a 42-17 lead late in the third quarter.
A 2-yard touchdown run by Matt Cathey for McDaniel and a three-yard scoring run by Johns Hopkins' Tyler Messinger in the fourth quarter closed the scoring in the 49-24 victory for the Blue Jays.
In addition to Walters' 103-yard, four-touchdown performance, the Blue Jays also got 149 yards passing and two touchdown passes from Germano, while Donaldson had three receptions for 94 yards. Brookhart enjoyed the best game of his career as he had three receptions for 73 yards and the one score, threw the 45-yard pass to Caggiano and added two kickoff returns for 65 yards to cap a 139-yard all-purpose day.
Jack Campbell led the Blue Jay defense with 11 tackles, while Jack Toner added nine tackles, two pass breakups and forced a fumble. The Blue Jays got interceptions from senior Curtis Antrum and junior Dan Johnson and a fumble recovery from Kyle Bonci and have now forced 29 turnovers on the year.
Koester was 27-of-43 for 222 yards with one touchdown against two interceptions, while Oliveto had a game-high 13 receptions for 107 yards and the one score.
Notes: Germano's two touchdown passes give him a school single-season record 27 entering the NCAA Playoffs • Hopkins went over 200 yards rushing (203) and passing (299) for the sixth time this season and the Blue Jays topped 500 yards of total offense (503) for the third straight game and the fifth time on the year • Johns Hopkins improved to 41-4 since the start of the 2012 season – this ties the Centennial Conference and Johns Hopkins records for wins in a four-year period • The Blue Jay seniors played their final regular season game and finish with a 39-1 career regular season record • Hopkins finishes the regular season at 10-0 for the third straight year and the fourth time in five years • JHU is now 18-1 in its last 19 regular season games in November and 14-2 in its last 16 regular season road games.
- Pride and Poise -