WESTMINSTER, MD – The 17th-ranked Johns Hopkins football team jumped to a 27-0 lead less than 11 minutes into Saturday's game at rival McDaniel, pushed the advantage to 41-0 at the half and cruised to a 48-7 victory against the Green Terror to close the regular season. With the win, the Blue Jays earned a share of their record 15th Centennial Conference title, all of which have come since 2002.
Johns Hopkins (9-1, 8-1 Centennial) shares the Centennial title with Muhlenberg; the Mules earn the league's automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA Playoffs due to the head-to-head tie-breaker. Johns Hopkins must now wait until 5:30 pm on Sunday evening to see if it earns one of the five at-large bids available in the 32-team playoff bracket.
The Blue Jays wasted little time staking their claim to a share of the title as they needed just 96 seconds to open the scoring as junior Danny Wolf capped a quick five-play, 45-yard touchdown with a 12-yard scoring run on Hopkins' opening possession. A 42-yard game-opening kickoff return by Harrison Wellmann set the Blue Jays up at the McDaniel 45 and Wolf's touchdown quickly followed.
By the time McDaniel recorded a first down, the deficit had grown to 20 as the Blue Jay defense forced a three-and-out on the first Green Terror possession and a Joe Tischler interception ended the second.
Johns Hopkins got a 17-yard scoring pass from Ryan Stevens to Ryan Hubley and a 19-yard Stevens-to-Hubley scoring toss after those two Green Terror possessions to account for the 20-point surge in the first eight minutes of the game.
After the Terror fumbled the ball able away on their next possession, Hopkins went to its bag of tricks with Wellmann throwing the first touchdown pass of his career – a 21-yard pass to a wide open Quinn Revere – to make it 27-0 just over 11 minutes into the game.
A 49-yard interception return for a touchdown by Macauley Kilbane and a one-yard Jacob Chapman scoring run in the second quarter and a four-yard touchdown reception by Wellmann early in the third made it 48-0 and Johns Hopkins head coach Greg Chimera rotated players liberally over the final 25 minutes of the game.
McDaniel's lone score on the day came late in the third quarter, when the Green Terror pieced together their best drive of the game, an eight-play 79-yard march that was polished off with a 17-yard touchdown pass from John Furgeson to Matteo DeGennaro late in the third quarter.
The Blue Jay defense forced five turnovers on the day – the third consecutive game Hopkins has forced five turnovers – picked up four sacks and held its fifth opponent of the season to 10 points or less. Kilbane had three tackles, a fumble recovery and the interception return for a touchdown.
Johns Hopkins turned four of the five Green Terror turnovers into touchdowns. The only time the Blue Jays failed to score after causing a turnover came when Michael Linguadoca intercepted Fergeson in the end zone on the next-to-last play of the first half.
Notes: Wellmann's receiving touchdown pushes his career total to 30, which ties him with Sam Wernick for second place in school history • The Blue Jay defense has forced 30 turnovers on the year – the third-best single-season total for JHU since 2001.
JHU Tops Rival McDaniel, Grabs Share of Record 15th Centennial Title
/seasons/2021/boxscores/20211113_0gu7.xml
2021
Johns Hopkins
48
McDaniel
7
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. 17 Johns Hopkins (9-1) | 27 | 14 | 7 | 0 | 48 |
| McDaniel (2-8) | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 7 |
Nov 13, 2021
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