BALTIMORE, MD – A quick check of the Johns Hopkins football record book is all it takes to find the name Joe Cowan, who starred for the Blue Jays in 1967 and 1968 and was later drafted by the Baltimore Colts.
Cowan was in attendance at Saturday's game against Ursinus, a 52-21 Johns Hopkins victory that saw the third-ranked Blue Jays strike for a 76-yard touchdown on the first offensive play of the game and sprint to a 31-0 lead before the game was 26 minutes old.
The 52-point, 543-yard offensive explosion for the Blue Jays included a career-high 228 receiving yards for junior Cole Crotty and a 113-yard rushing performance from senior Geoff Schroeder.
Another check of the record book reveals that the last time – and the only other time before Saturday – that Johns Hopkins had a 200-yard receiver and a 100-yard rusher in the same game came on November 23, 1968, when Cowan himself had 201 yards receiving and powerful running back Paul Weiss pounded out 177 yards on the ground in a 46-23 win at then Western Maryland (now McDaniel).
Cowan and Weiss played with a quarterback named Jim Feely on that day back in 1968. Feely would throw for 225 yards and two scores in that win against the Green Terror. In Saturday's win against the Bears, current Blue Jay quarterback Bay Harvey did him one better, as he was 18-of-26 for 315 yards and three touchdowns to help fuel the victory.
With Harvey's 315-yard passing performance, the combination of Harvey, Crotty, and Schroeder becomes the first 300-200-100 trio in Blue Jay history.
In a game full of big plays and performances, it was Harvey finding Crotty deep behind the Ursinus secondary on that first offensive play of the game to jump-start the 31-point run that essentially put the game away.
The Blue Jays (6-0, 3-0 Centennial) would tack on a 31-yard Brad Paxton field goal on their next possession, which was set by a Carson Bourdo interception, and a one-yard Schroeder touchdown run late in the first quarter to make it 17-0.
Any hopes for an Ursinus comeback took a hit on the kickoff after Schroeder's touchdown as Justin Scully forced a fumble that freshman Brock Bojorquez recovered at the Ursinus 28-yard line. Eight plays later, Crotty added his second touchdown of the game – this one from four yards out – to extend the lead to 24-0 and Schroeder would punch one in from two-yards out to cap a six-play, 77-yard drive with 4:19 on the second-quarter clock to cap the 31-point game-opening run.
To that point, the Bears had accumulated 120 yards on three possessions, but the Blue Jay defense had come up with the Bourdo interception, forced a punt and turned Ursinus over on down to keep the Bears scoreless.
Ursinus (4-2, 1-2 CC) would wrap a 23-yard Cody House touchdown reception and a one-yard Jason Bernard touchdown run around a 24-yard Harvey-to-Chad Martini laser in the corner of the end zone to make it 38-14 with more than 12 minutes remaining in the third quarter, but scoring runs from Ty Pugliano (3 yards) and Brock Dandridge (33) would extend the lead to 52-14 before a Bernard touchdown run midway through the fourth quarter closed the scoring.
Inside the Box Score – Johns Hopkins
• Crotty finished with nine receptions for 228 yards and two touchdowns. The 228 receiving yards are the fourth-best single-game total in program history.
• Harvey notched his third career 300-yard passing game and added 36 rushing yards to account for 351 yards of total offense.
• Schroeder punched up his fifth career 100-yard rushing performance with his 113 yards and his two rushing TDs mark his fourth multi-touchdown game of the season.
• Browning Trainer paced the Blue Jays defensively with six tackles, while Carter Hogg and Jack Smith both notched five stops on the day.
• Scully added four tackles to his forced fumble and Bourdo had three tackles to go along with his early interception.
• Ursinus entered the game averaging nearly 150 yards per game on the ground, but managed just 57 on 20 rushing attempts against the Blue Jays.
Inside the Box Score – Ursinus
• Tristan Machado was 19-of-41 for 262 yards with one touchdown and the one interception.
• Bernard had a team-high 44 rushing yards and the two touchdowns.
• Ryder Zulkowski was Machado's favorite target as he had five receptions for 64 yards, while Markel Roberts-Jackson had two catches for 66 yards; his 57-yard reception early in the third quarter set up Bernard's first score.
• Five different players had eight tackles the Ursinus defense with Matt Agar adding an interception to his eight stops.
Notes of Interest
• Johns Hopkins topped the 50-point mark for the second time this season and the 61st time in program history; 39 of the 61 all-time 50-point games in program history have come since 2009.
• JHU rolled up a season-high 543 yards of total offense with 228 on the ground and 315 through the air. Today's game marks the 21st time in program history that the Blue Jays have totaled more than 200 yards rushing and 300 yards passing in a game.
• JHU is 48-3 in its last 51 games in the month of October.
• Since the start of the 2014 season, Johns Hopkins is 60-6 at home.
Johns Hopkins will return to action on Saturday, October 25 when the Blue Jays travel to Gettysburg (1 pm).
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