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Mike Preston: No. 7 Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse shows winning touch to beat No. 8 Penn State in OT, 9-8 | COMMENTARY

mike preston, baltimore sun
·4 min read

It isn’t always pretty, but Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse knows how to win.

On Saturday, the Blue Jays scored four goals in the fourth quarter — including two from leading scorer Garrett Degnon — and got strong individual performances from midfielder Dylan Bauer and goalie Chayse Ierlan to beat No. 8 Penn State in overtime, 9-8, in front of 5,840 fans on homecoming at Homewood Field.

Sophomore midfielder Matt Collison scored the game-winning goal 2:39 into the extra period on a feed from Bauer, who beat defensive midfielder Grant Haus up near the top of the restraining box before feeding the pass to Collison.

The ending touched off a wild celebration by the Blue Jays (8-3, 3-0 Big Ten), who opened up a two-game lead over the Nittany Lions (7-3, 1-2) in the conference race.

“To get to 3-0, to be undefeated in the conference at this point, is a huge step forward,” Hopkins coach Peter Milliman said.

Penn State outplayed the Blue Jays for three quarters, taking a 5-4 lead, but Hopkins dominated the final frame. The Blue Jays outshot the Nittany Lions, 10-6, and outscored them, 4-2.

Degnon scored on two unassisted long shots to open the fourth, and Collison scored with 4:31 in regulation to give Hopkins an 8-7 lead. Penn State midfielder Mac Costin — who had been a pain for the Blue Jays all afternoon by twice splitting double teams for a goal — scored on a high shot with 1:27 remaining to send the game into overtime.

But after Penn State turned the ball over, the overtime belonged to Bauer, who kept the Blue Jays in the game while the offense struggled.

Bauer finished one goal and three assists, and the Nittany Lions couldn’t contain him up top or from behind the cage. Even on the game-winning assist, he caught the Penn State defense standing still.

“The whole game they were not sliding to us, and so we tried to win the one-on-one matchups. I got a step on him and saw Matt Collison in the middle,” Bauer said. “I think offensively, their goalie was making a lot of saves, and we had to figure out where we were taking shots, which ones were good, which ones were bad. I think we generated a lot of good looks but just weren’t finishing our shots. So we just tried to control the middle of the field and I think we did that at the end.”

For most of the game, goalies dominated. Penn State’s Jack Fracyon, an Annapolis native, and Ierlan each had 16 saves. There were times when both offenses struggled, leading to a combined 26 turnovers, including 17 by Penn State.

But both goalies kept making saves right outside the crease. They shut down fast breaks and isolation plays. Hopkins, though, got big plays at the end from two of its top offensive players, Degnon and Collison. Degnon entered the game with 31 goals and four assists and Collison had 14 goals and seven assists.

Penn State came out surprisingly strong, especially after losing a hard-fought 13-11 game against Maryland last week. The Nittany Lions were outscored, 6-1, in the fourth quarter of that loss as well.

Neither team showed much offense in the first half, and both teams shut down the passing lanes.

Penn State outshot Hopkins, 13-7, in the first quarter but also had six turnovers compared with two for the Blue Jays. Fracyon had six saves in the first quarter. The only goal came from midfielder Matt Traynor, who ran to his right from about 10 yards inside the restraining box. Traynor finished with two goals and attackman TJ Malone had three for the Nittany Lions.

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Blue Jays attackman Russell Melendez scored on an over-the-shoulder shot on an excellent feed from Bauer with 9:07 remaining in the second quarter to tie the game at 1.

Traynor put the Nittany Lions ahead, 2-1, with his second goal of the game with 3:13 remaining, but Hopkins came back with a goal from attackman Jacob Angelus nearly 41 seconds later.

As boring as the first quarter was, it was almost the total opposite in the last 1:50 seconds of the second frame.

Costin split a double team to the right of Hopkins’ net and scored with 1:38 left to push the Nittany Lions’ lead to 3-2, and then Malone scored with 53 seconds remaining to give Penn State a 4-2 advantage at halftime. The Nittany Lions outshot the Blue Jays, 24-13, in the half but nearly doubled them in turnovers, 9-4.

“It was just a hard fought battle,” Milliman said. “They do a lot of things well, and we knew it was going to be a close game. But we hung in there early when we weren’t getting many shots in the net, so we’re glad to come away with the win.”

No. 7 Johns Hopkins at Ohio State

Sunday, 7 p.m.

TV: Big Ten Network