Nov. 7, 2015
BALTIMORE, MD – The Johns Hopkins football team scored 45 points, rolled up 576 yards of total offense, had a 300-yard passer, a 100-yard rusher, scored one defensive touchdown and forced three turnovers in Saturday's 45-24 victory against visiting Franklin & Marshall.
None of those numbers mattered as much to the Blue Jays and head coach Jim Margraff as the numbers seven and five – as in, Johns Hopkins clinched no worse than a share of its seventh straight Centennial Conference title and locked up a fifth straight berth in the NCAA Playoffs with the win over the Diplomats.
Sure, there were other numbers: A Centennial-record-tying 30th consecutive regular season victory, a 40th overall win for the seniors that were honored in pregame festivities and a perfect 20-0 career mark for those same seniors in regular season games played at Homewood Field.
In the end, it was one win, but it was the one that helped Margraff and the Blue Jays accomplish their number one goal – win the Centennial Conference title.
While the Blue Jays (9-0, 8-0 Centennial Conference) never trailed in the game, they also couldn't quite put away an F&M team that came in with a plan and executed it well for nearly three quarters. The Diplomats, who were within 14-10 early in the second quarter and 28-17 late in the third, finally had no answer when the Blue Jays scored two touchdowns in 82 seconds to turn that 11-point lead into a 42-17 advantage.
Junior Stuart Walters turned literally nothing into something – that something being a 37-yard highlight reel scoring run that saw him somehow elude two defenders behind the line of scrimmage and outrace the F&M defense down the sideline before diving into the end zone to give the Blue Jays a 35-17 lead.
That lead lasted just over a minute before junior Dan Johnson intercepted a Matt Magarity pass and returned it 23 yards for a touchdown to extend the lead to 42-17 with just 23 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
A 20-yard Jamie Sullivan field goal pushed the lead to 45-17 midway through the fourth quarter before F&M closed out the scoring with a 22-yard touchdown pass from Tanner Erisman to Logan Lewis with just under five minutes remaining.
The 17-point run in the second half for the Blue Jays actually capped a 31-7 run that bridged the second and third quarters. That came on the heels of an opening 20 minutes that saw the teams battle virtually even with Hopkins leading 14-10 at the 10-minute mark of the second quarter.
A quick, six-play, 67-yard drive to open the game for the Blue Jays was capped by a 37-yard touchdown pass from junior Jonathan Germano to classmate Bradley Munday to stake Hopkins to a 7-0 lead.
F&M (6-3, 5-3 CC) answered with a 25-yard field goal by Billy Zwicharowski to slice the deficit to 7-3. The Blue Jay defense had actually stopped the Diplomats on their first drive, but a Cody Hubbs' punt glanced off a Johns Hopkins player and F&M recovered at the JHU 25. Six plays later Zwicharowski's field goal put F&M on the board.
It took just over three minutes for Johns Hopkins to answer as Walters capped an eight-play, 61-yard drive to make it 14-3 late in the first quarter. The touchdown was the first of Walters' three on the day.
Neither team did anything on its next possession as a Diplomat punt followed Walters' touchdown and F&M stopped Hopkins on fourth-and-two near midfield. Working from the Blue Jay 49, F&M put together its longest drive of the game and capped a five-play drive with a 19-yard scoring pass from Magarity to Lewis.
With a little momentum now wearing F&M blue, the Blue Jays didn't waste long answering the Lewis touchdown and turned to Walters, who went 62 yards on Hopkins' second play from scrimmage after the score to extend the lead to 21-10. Walters started inside, bounced it outside and picked up a convoy of blockers along the sideline to give Hopkins a 28-10 lead at the half.
That 18-point lead held until Dillon Alderfer hauled in a 12-yard touchdown pass from Magarity with 8:57 on the clock in the third quarter that made it 28-17.
F&M stopped Hopkins on a fourth-down play on the ensuing possession, but the Diplomats couldn't do anything with it on their next possession and Walters jump-started the deciding 17-0 run with his 37-yard touchdown run a short time later.
Walters rushed for a game and career-high 146 yards and had a personal-best 197 all-purpose yards to go along with the three rushing scores. Germano was 19-of-27 for 304 yards and two scores and 11 different players had at least one reception for Johns Hopkins, which had 309 passing yards and 267 rushing yards to account for its 576-yard effort.
Jack Campbell led the Blue Jays with 11 tackles, while seniors Keith Corliss and John Hardin, playing in their final regular season home game, had nine and eight tackles, respectively.
Magarity was 15-of-27 for 160 yards with two touchdowns against one interception and Lewis added 57 yards rushing, 46 yards receiving and the two touchdown catches. Nathan English led the way defensively for F&M with a game-high 12 tackles, including 1.5 sacks, and also recovered a fumble.
Johns Hopkins will close the regular season next Saturday at McDaniel (0-9, 0-8 CC). A win against the Green Terror would give the Blue Jays the outright Centennial title.
Notes: Walters became the 10th player in Johns Hopkins history to top 2,000 career rushing yards as he now has 2,087 • Walters also become just the sixth player in school history to score 30 or more touchdowns as his three today give him 30 • Germano tied the Johns Hopkins record for touchdown passes in a season (25) • Today's win was the 27th straight for Johns Hopkins in Centennial Conference play • Hopkins is 9-0 for the fourth time in five years • The Johns Hopkins seniors improved to 40-4 in their career and can tie the Centennial record for most wins by a class with a win next week at McDaniel.
- Pride and Poise -