Baltimore, Maryland–Hopkins completed a stretch of four games in 11 days to upend the Villanova Wildcats at Homewood Field. In the seventh all-time meeting between the two schools, the Blue Jays turned an 8-7 lead into a 13-7 win.
Villanova started the game with three of the first four goals and looked to be in control early. Johnny Gallaway opened the scoring in the first minute of the game, with the assist to Eric Gartner. The Wildcats took a two-goal advantage as Gallaway scored his second. Villanova’s offense was clicking early in the contest.
Hopkins answered with their first goal of the game by senior Brandon Benn. In his final game at Homewood Field, he continued his goal scoring ways as he went over the century mark the last game against Navy. The Wildcats got the lead back to two when Kevin O’Neil scored, assisted by Jack Curran.
The Blue Jays would score the next two to tie the game at three. First Holden Cattoni scored unassisted. Within a minute, senior Rob Guida would score his first, the assist going to sophomore attackman Ryan Brown.
Johns Hopkins would open the second quarter with four straight goals to take momentum with them into halftime at 7-5. Cattoni got his second of the night, followed by Guida getting his second. Wells Stanwick scored on Hopkins extra man opportunity as John Crawley found him open and Stanwick would score unassisted to end the run by the Jays. Villanova would answer with two goals to close the gap. Matt McIver and Tyler Frederick would score in short succession to cut the Jays lead in half.
Early into the third, Villanova would cut the lead to one as McNamara would score an unassisted goal to make the score 7-6 in favor of Hopkins. Michael Pellegrino found Ryan Brown open to increase the lead to two, but shortly thereafter Jack Curran would again bring the deficit to one at 8-7. Hopkins defense held strong, shutting out the Wildcats for the duration of the game.
The Hopkins starting attack unit of Ryan Brown, Wells Stanwick, and Brandon Benn would score unassisted goals in order to give the Jays the lead 11-7 heading into the fourth quarter. Benn would score with one second left on the clock. Hopkins dominated faceoffs in the quarter to get the lead, only losing one faceoff the entire third quarter.
The fourth quarter was all Hopkins as the Jays would score the only two goals of the quarter and grinding out possessions to limit Villanova’s opportunities. Senior goalie Eric Schneider had four of his saves that quarter and the Wildcats just couldn’t get through the Jays defense. Connor Reed would score with seven minutes remaining to increase the lead to five in favor of Hopkins. Holden Cattoni finished his hat trick with 39 seconds left to complete the scoring on the evening.
Both Wells Stanwick and Holden Cattoni had three goals. Stanwick led all scorers with four points on three goals, one assist. Craig Madarasz came into the game and gave Hopkins continuous possessions to gain the lead. For the game, he was seven for nine on face off opportunities. Devin McNamara led Villanova with one goal, three assists for four points. Johnny Gallaway was the only multiple goal scorer for the Wildcats, finishing the game with two.
Up next for Hopkins is local rival, and top ranking team in the nation in Loyola University. The Blue Jays will be looking to avenge last season’s finale as Loyola essentially eliminated Hopkins from the NCAA Tournament, the first time the Jays were not in the tournament in its history. Villanova faces Providence next back on campus to conclude their regular season schedule.
– Brian Davies
@briandavies15
