BALTIMORE, Md. — Division III No. 3-ranked Johns Hopkins University built an 11-7 halftime lead and expanded its margin to 18-10 by the conclusion of the third quarter to outlast Mount St. Mary’s University, 21-19. in the Blue Jays’ home opener. Hopkins improves to 11-3 on the season while the Mount fall to 6-11.
Hopkins jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the game’s opening four and a half minutes as Luke Mendelsohn bookended the opening run with even-strength strikes at 6:40 and 3:26 to sandwich tallies by Alec Baker (5:45, man-up) and Jason Mihalopoulos (4:53, natural).
MSM’s Ioannis Skliras pumped in goals at 2:48 (man-up) and 2:12 (natural) around a tally by JHU’s Owen Barlett (2:26, natural) to make it a 5-2 contest prior to the squads exchanging scoring blows by Patrick Rooney (53 seconds, man-up), Chrysostomos Valavanis (25 seconds, man-up) and Skliras (four seconds, penalty shot) to set the scoreboard at 6-4 in favor of the Blue Jays after eight minutes of action.
The teams traded scoring blows over the first five and a half minutes of the second quarter as Mihalopoulos (7:36, man-up), Mason Hofmann (6:05, penalty shot) and Quint Steffey (3:59, natural) converted for the Johns Hopkins, while Ayden Hess (6:35, natural), Wes Reising (5:02, man-up) and Valavanis (2:36, man-up) responded for the Mountaineers to make the score 9-7.
JHU acquired some additional breathing room prior to the halftime horn as Max Blecher (1:48, natural) and Gavin Brooke (1:07, man-up) fired home insurance markers as the Blue Jays entered the break clutching an 11-7 margin.
Hopkins’ scoring run continued during the first two and a half minutes of the third quarter as Mendelsohn (7:31, natural), Hoffman (5:03, penalty shot) and Andrew Lee (4:39, natural) continued their team’s momentum by spinning in shots to double-up Mount St. Mary’s at 14-7.
Alexandros Belesis snapped the scoring spurt by answering for the Mountaineers with a penalty shot at 4:21, Ethan Babel (3:55, natural) delivered a counter for JHU and Belesis struck for another penalty shot at 3:11 to make the score 15-9.
Blecher (1:57, natural), Hofmann (1:23, man-up) and Philip Long (16 seconds, natural) chipped in goals to surround a score by Valavanis (1:11, natural) as Johns Hopkins entered the fourth quarter with a comfortable 18-10 lead.
The Mount, however, refused to go down without a fight as Lee inflated the JHU margin to 19-10 with a man-up score at 6:32 prior to Valavanis (6:12, man-up), Belesis (5:39, penalty shot) and Nikolaos Agritelis (3:21, man-up) moving Mount St. Mary’s back to within six at 19-13.
Hofmann (3:41, natural/1:57, natural), Agritelis (3:21, man-up) and Belesis (3:07, natural) exchanged scoring shots to make it a 21-15 game before William Mathews (1:32, man-up), Jack Fox (1:13, penalty shot) and Belesis (34 seconds, penalty shot/23 seconds, man-up) chipped away at the final deficit in the waning minutes for a 21-19 final result.
For Mount St. Mary’s, Belesis finished with six goals and three assist, while Valavanis (four goals), Skiliras (three goals, one assist), Agritelis (two goals), Fox (one goal), Hess (one goal), Reising (one goal), Matthews (one goal). Aaron Tarr (two assists), Nate Valentine (one assist) and Aldan Zieger (one assist) also contributed on the offensive end of the tank. Sherif Hosni made 12 saves in goal against the Blue Jays.
Hofmann (five goals, two assists), Mendelsohn (three goals, two assists), Blecher (two goals, one assist), Mihalopoulos (two goals, one assist), Lee (two goals), Baker (one goal, five assists), Rooney (one goal, one assist), Long (one goal), Babel (one goal), Steffey (one goal), Bartlett (one goal), Brooke (one goal) and Ben Lucas (three assists) combined for the Blue Jays’ offense in support of a 10-save effort by goalkeeper Chris Poisler.
