BALTIMORE, MD – Senior Brandon Benn’s second goal of the game 59 seconds into the third overtime lifted the 11th-ranked Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse team to a 10-9 victory against 14th-ranked Ohio State before 1,338 fans at Homewood Field Sunday afternoon. Benn’s goal capped a game that saw the Blue Jays trail early, lead by three in the second half and kill off an Ohio State extra-man opportunity in the second overtime.
The triple-overtime game is the second-longest in Johns Hopkins history as only a four-overtime affair with Virginia in 2001 was longer.
After splitting the opening faceoffs of the first and second overtime, junior Drew Kennedy won the draw to open the third extra session and the Blue Jays quickly called timeout. From there, the Blue Jays worked the ball to sophomore Holden Cattoni at the top of the box, where he found Benn 10 yards from the goal to the right of Buckeye goalie Greg Dutton. Benn fake dodged top side from the wing and stepped in and to the side of his defender before ripping home the game-winner, which secured JHU’s 12th win in 14 season openers under head coach Dave Pietramala.
The Blue Jays had taken control of the game in the third quarter by outscoring the Buckeyes 6-3 after the teams battled to a 2-2 halftime score.
After scoring twice in the opening 30 minutes, it took the Blue Jays just two minutes of the third quarter to match that as senior Rob Guida and freshman John Crawley scored off assists from junior Wells Stanwick.
Ohio State’s Jesse King and Reegan Comeault wrapped goals around a Cattoni strike in a span of just over two minutes midway through the period to make it 5-4 before the Blue Jays scored three of the last four goals of the third quarter to grab an 8-5 lead entering the final period.
Michael Pellegrino, Benn and Stanwick all scored in the final 6:02 of the third quarter for the Blue Jays, while Turner Evans added his only goal of the game for Ohio State during that same time frame.
The Blue Jays’ three-goal lead held for more than six minutes in the fourth quarter before King completed his hat trick at the 11:31 mark off a nice feed inside from Comeault. An unassisted goal by Johns Hopkins sophomore Ryan Brown with just under eight minutes left pushed JHU’s lead to 9-6, which set stage for OSU’s late-game rally.
Despite scoring seven goals in a span of just over 22 minutes to open the second half, the Blue Jays couldn’t quite put the Buckeyes away and Ohio State made the run that forced overtime.
King needed just over two minutes to score his fourth and fifth goals of the game and sophomore Gordie Koerber made a nice cut through the slot and Charlie Schnider found him for the equalizer with 3:07 left in the fourth quarter.
It would be more than 12 minutes of playing time before Benn’s game-winner, but it wasn’t for lack of chances for both teams down the stretch.
Brown had a goal taken away for a crease violation with 75 seconds left in regulation and Ohio State fired seven shots in the first two overtime periods, including two that were saved by Johns Hopkins goalie Eric Schneider.
Still, it came down to one possession and Kennedy, who won a career-high 18 of 22 faceoffs for the Blue Jays on the day, took the one to open the third overtime and Benn capitalized 59 seconds later to end the marathon.
Stanwick paced the Blue Jays with one goal and a career-high-tying five assists, while Benn and Brown both scored to two goals and added an assist to give JHU’s starting attack trio a combined five goals and seven assists. In addition his work on faceoffs, Kennedy had a career-high 13 ground balls and Schneider had a career-best 13 saves for Johns Hopkins.
King, an Honorable Mention All-American last season, matched Stanwick’s six points with his five-goal, one-assist effort. Comeault and Carter Brown both added one goal and one assist and Dutton posted 11 saves in goal for the Buckeyes, who matched the Blue Jays on ground balls (30-30) and were a perfect 21-for-21 on clears.
Notes: Johns Hopkins is now 17-3 all-time in the month of February and has won 13 straight games in this month • Johns Hopkins is now 5-0 all-time against Ohio State • JHU improved to 20-10 in overtime under head coach Dave Pietramala • Brandon Benn extended his goal-scoring streak to 17 games – the fourth-longest active streak in the nation.
#14 Ohio State (0-1) 2-0-3-4-0-0-/9
#11 Johns Hopkins (1-0) 1-1-6-1-0-0-1/10
Goals: O: King-5, Evans, Comeault, Brown, Koerber. J: Benn-2, Brown-2, Stanwick, Reed, Guida, Cattoni, Pellegrino, Crawley. Assists: O: Evans-3, Brown, Comeault, King, Schnider. J: Stanwick-5, Benn, Brown. Saves: O: Dutton-11. J: Schneider-13. Shots: O-35. J-42. EMO: O: 0-for-4. J: 0-for-2. Attendance: 1,338.
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