TOWSON, Md. ? For 56 minutes, it seemed like the Tigers were going to send their seniors out of Unitas Stadium with a win over seventh-ranked Johns Hopkins. However, the Blue Jays had other ideas and one of their seniors stole the show as Johns Hopkins rallied to win its fourth straight game, an 11-10 double overtime victory over Towson in front of 3,509 fans on Senior Night at Unitas Stadium.
Senior midfielder Brian Christopher scored the game-winning goal with 1.2 seconds remaining in the second overtime period as the Blue Jays extended their win streak over their Charles Street rivals to 14 straight games. Christopher, who scored the second overtime goal of his career, gave the Blue Jays the victory with a shot from eight yards out that bounced over the right shoulder of junior goalkeeper Rob Wheeler.
“Our kids played their guts out tonight,” Towson Coach Tony Seaman said. “Everybody on our team played as well as they could play. We had some opportunities tonight, especially in the overtimes, but we didn't win it.”
The Tigers jumped out to a 2-0 lead late in the first quarter when seniors Randall Cooper and Justin Schneider scored past junior goalkeeper Michael Gvozden.
With 1:15 remaining in the first quarter, junior attackman Steven Boyle narrowed the Johns Hopkins deficit to 2-1 with his 18th goal of the season.
After the teams exchanged just 25 seconds apart late in the second quarter, the Tigers extended their lead to 5-2 with back-to-back goals from sophomore Tim Stratton and freshman Matt Lamon. The Blue Jays cut the margin to 5-3 with 26 seconds left in the first half when sophomore attackman Kyle Wharton scored off a feed from junior midfielder Michael Kimmel.
The Tigers upped their lead to 7-3 when Cooper and junior midfielder Pat Britton tallied consecutive goals, but Kimmel answered just 20 seconds later with an unassisted marker to close the gap to 7-4.
After a goal by senior attackman Bill McCutcheon extended the Tigers' lead to 8-4, Wharton and junior attackman Chris Boland answered for the Blue Jays with a pair of goals just over a minute apart for an 8-6 Towson advantage.
Schneider regained the Tigers' three-goal advantage with just three seconds left in the third quarter when he scored off a feed from Lamon.
Trailing by 9-6 at the start of the fourth quarter, the Blue Jay offense worked to tie the game with three straight goals. With 13:42 left in regulation, senior midfielder Mark Bryan scored an unassisted goal to trim the Towson lead to 9-7. After senior attackman Josh Peck converted an extra-man opportunity with five minutes remaining, Kimmel tied the game with 3:49 left by scoring an unassisted goal.
With 3:24 remaining, McCutcheon scored off an assist from Cooper to regain the Tigers' one-goal cushion, but Christopher responded by tallying the game-tying goal with 2:12 left to force the overtime.
In the first overtime period, the Tigers had their best opportunity with 3:22 remaining but a shot by Britton was saved by Gvozden to preserve the tie. On the ensuing possession, the Blue Jays had three chances to win, including a shot by Boyle that was stopped by Wheeler with 1:31 remaining in the stanza.
Each team traded shots in the opening minute of the second overtime period before the Blue Jays gained an extra-man opportunity after a penalty was called against junior midfielder Will Harrington. However, Wheeler and the Tiger defense withstood two shots before forcing a turnover to kill the penalty.
Schneider had a pair of chances to secure the victory for the Tigers, but Gvozden saved both shots and the Blue Jays got the ball with 47 seconds remaining, setting up Christopher's heroics.
Kimmel led the Blue Jays with a career-high five points, scoring two goals with three assists. Meanwhile, Christopher added a three-goal effort. Gvozden made 15 saves in the victory as the Tigers outshot Johns Hopkins by a 41-35 margin.
One of seven seniors who were playing their final regular season home game, Schneider recorded a career-high four points by scoring two goals with two assists. Cooper also added a two-goal, two-assist effort for the Tigers while Lamon scored a goal with a season-high three assists.
Wheeler made eight saves, including three in the overtime periods.
“Johns Hopkins is a good shooting team and if they get good shots, they're going to get goals,” Seaman said. “I thought Rob made five spectacular saves tonight. He was phenomenal in goal for us.
“Both goalkeepers played extremely well tonight,” Seaman added. “We just couldn't take care of the opportunities when we had them.”
The Tigers, who were playing their first overtime game in nearly two years, will finish the regular season on Sunday afternoon when they travel to the University of Pennsylvania for a 2 p.m. game against the Quakers. The game will be broadcast in the Baltimore area on WTMD-FM 89.7 with Spiro Morekas and Greg LaCour providing the play-by-play.
The Blue Jays, who are 4-0 in the month of April, will travel to Mount St. Mary's on Monday night to face the Mountaineers at 7 p.m.
Goals: JHU ? Brian Christopher 3, Michael Kimmel 2, Kyle Wharton 2, Steven Boyle 1, Mark Bryan 1, Chris Boland 1, Josh Peck 1; TOW ? Justin Schneider 2, Randall Cooper 2, Bill McCutcheon 2, Matt Lamon 1, Will Harrington 1, Tim Stratton 1, Pat Britton 1. Assists: JHU ? Michael Kimmel 3, Steven Boyle 2; TOW ? Matt Lamon 3, Randall Cooper 2, Justin Schneider 2, Will Harrington 1, Bill McCutcheon 1, Tim Stratton 1. Saves: JHU ? Michael Gvozden 15 (67:58, 10 goals allowed); TOW ? Rob Wheeler 8 (67:58, 11 goals allowed). Shots: JHU ? 35; TOW ? 41. Extra-Man Opportunities: JHU ? 3 for 4; TOW ? 1 for 3. Attendance: 3,509.
