Oct. 14, 2016
CARLISLE, PA – The eighth-ranked Johns Hopkins football team scored 35 points in a span of just under 15 minutes between the second and third quarters to turn a tight game into a 45-10 victory at Dickinson Friday night at Biddle Field.
The victory improves the Blue Jays' record to 6-0 overall and 5-0 in the Centennial Conference. With the victory, Johns Hopkins also ties the Centennial Conference record for consecutive league wins with its 33rd straight dating back to the final game of the 2012 season. Then Western Maryland (now McDaniel) originally set the record of 33 from 1997-2001. Ironically, it was Johns Hopkins that snapped that 33-game run by the Green Terror with a 21-14 victory.
The Blue Jays led just 7-3 midway through the second quarter before exploding for 21 points in the final 6:03 of the half to grab a 28-3 halftime lead.
After Dickinson sliced a seven-point deficit to 7-3 with a 42-yard field goal by Stephen Walker with 8:57 left in the second quarter, the Blue Jays answered with an 11-play, 76-yard drive that was capped by a two-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Jonathan Germano to senior wide receiver Bradley Munday to make it 14-3. The touchdown pass came on fourth-and-goal after the Red Devils had stopped the Blue Jays on three straight plays from inside the two.
The 11-point lead held until the final three minutes of the half, when the Blue Jays twice went to the hurry-up offense and scored a pair of touchdowns in the final 1:55 to carry the 28-3 lead into intermission.
After forcing a Dickinson punt, the Blue Jays took over at their own 27 with 1:55 on the first-half clock and needed just six plays and 47 seconds to go 73 yards with junior Ryan Cary getting to the outside and racing to the end zone from 26 yards out to push the lead to 21-3 with 69 seconds left in the first half.
The Blue Jay defense forced a quick three-and-out on Dickinson's ensuing possession and Hopkins did itself one better than its last drive as the Blue Jays used just five plays and 32 seconds to cover 64 yards with Germano firing a perfect back-shoulder throw to sophomore Luke McFadden at the pylon to make it 28-3 at the half.
Johns Hopkins put the game away with touchdowns on its first two drives of the second half to extend the lead to 42-3 midway through the third quarter.
After freshman Dane Rogerson returned the second-half kickoff to the Blue Jay 48, and again working at a quick pace, the Blue Jays needed just six plays to go 52 yards and Germano and Munday again connected – this time from four yards out – to cap the half-opening drive.
Dickinson moved into Johns Hopkins territory on its ensuing possession, but the Blue Jay defense came up with a stop on fourth-and-six from the 37 and the Blue Jay offense took over the 32.
After two plays netted negative two yards, Germano hit junior Brett Caggiano in the middle of the field for a 40-yard gain to the Red Devil 30 and Cary covered those final 30 yards on three carries to make it 42-3 with 6:17 left in the third quarter.
Dickinson answered Cary's touchdown with a 78-yard drive that quarterback Billy Burger polished off with a seven-yard scoring run and Jamie Sullivan added a 32-yard field goal for Johns Hopkins early in the fourth quarter to close out the scoring.
A balanced Blue Jay offense generated 512 yards with 282 through the air and 230 on the ground. Germano and sophomore Zack Baker combined to go 28-of-39 for 282 yards with three touchdowns. Nine different players had at least one reception with Quinn Donaldson, Boone Lewis, Jr. and David Brookhart tying for the team-lead with five receptions apiece.
Cary paced the ground game for Hopkins with 14 rushes for 111 yards and two scores. The 128-yard effort is the second-best total of his career. Rogerson added 44 yards one five carries and scored the first touchdown of his career with a 30-yard run in the first quarter that gave the Blue Jays a 7-0 lead.
Junior Keonte Henson had a team-high eight tackles, including one sack for Johns Hopkins, which also got a pair of interceptions from senior Jack Toner and four total sacks on the night. The Blue Jay defense also limited Dickinson to just 4-of-15 on third-down chances.
Burger was 17-of-30 for 153 yards with no touchdowns against the two interceptions and he also rushed for a team-high 76 yards and the one touchdown on 23 carries.
Notes: None of Johns Hopkins' six touchdown drives in the game took longer than 2:54 and four of the six took 1:42 or less • In addition to tying the Centennial Conference record for consecutive league wins, the Blue Jays pushed their regular season winning streak to 37 games, their October winning streak to 21 games and their regular season road winning streak to 18 • JHU is now 32-11-1 under head coach Jim Margraff in games played on Friday night • With a 7-for-7 performance tonight, sophomore Zack Baker has completed 27 consecutive passes dating back to last season.
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