BALTIMORE, MD – The ninth-ranked Johns Hopkins football team got three first quarter touchdowns from junior Spencer Uggla and the Blue Jay defense held visiting Moravian to just 106 yards of total offense in a 54-0 victory at Homewood Field Friday night. The Blue Jays improve to 4-0 overall and 3-0 in the Centennial Conference while the Greyhounds slip to 1-3 overall and 1-2 in the Centennial.
After being forced to punt on their first drive of the game, the Blue Jays scored touchdowns on their next four possessions and added a field goal one drive after that to jump out to a 31-0 lead at the half.
Uggla capped the first three of those scoring drives with touchdown runs of 11, three and one yard to give the Blue Jays a 21-0 lead after one quarter. The third of Uggla's three touchdowns was set up by the first of Hopkins' three interceptions on the night as Nick Seidel picked off Carter Hallgren at the Moravian 35 and returned it to the Greyhound 14; four plays later Uggla went in from the one to polish off the 21-point first quarter for the Blue Jays.
A five-yard Ryan Stevens-to-Emmett Turner touchdown pass on the fourth play of the second quarter made it 28-0 and John Krill connected on a 27-yard field on the Blue Jays' next possession to account for the 31-point lead at the half. Moravian managed just 64 yards of total offense in the opening 30 minutes.
Hopkins tacked on 10 points in the third quarter with a Stevens-to-Artie Collins touchdown pass from 25 yards out capping their first drive, while Krill was true from 24 yards midway through the period to push the lead to 41-0.
The Blue Jays turned two fourth-quarter interceptions – one by Jake Spivak and one by Josh Andersson – into their final two scores of the game. Bay Harvey found Josh Polce in the back corner of the end zone from 25 yards out and Jacob Chapman later polished off a nine-play, 54-yard drive with a three-yard run to close out the scoring.
A balanced Blue Jay offense rolled up 261 yards rushing and four touchdowns on the ground and 339 yards and three scores through the air. Uggla rushed for 85 yards on 17 carries with the three scores, while Stevens and Harvey combined to go 30-of-40 for the 339 yards and three scores; Stevens was 25-of-32 for 283 yards and two scores. Collins totaled nine receptions for 136 yards and the one score.
Defensively, the Blue Jays got six tackles from Zach Allen and five each from Duncan Van Kouteren and Matt Dubois to go along with the interceptions from Seidel, Spivak and Andersson. This is the second straight game the Blue Jays have held the opposition to under 150 yards of total offense and they've allowed a total of just 229 yards in that time.
Hallgren was 11-of-28 for 41 yards and the three interceptions and Nate Boyle rushed 20 times for 57 yards. Jashon Teller paced the Greyhounds defensively with a game-high nine tackles, including one for a loss.
Notes: Including last week's 70-0 win over Juniata, the Blue Jays have posted back-to-back shutouts for the first time since blanking Ursinus and Juniata in consecutive games in 2008. Stevens' two touchdown passes move him into fifth place in school history (46). Johns Hopkins pushed its school-record streak of scoring 35 or more points to 10 games. The Blue Jays ran their winning streak in home games on Friday nights to 13 games; they last lost a home game on a Friday night in 2007.
Johns Hopkins will return to action on Saturday, October 1 when the Blue Jays travel to Franklin & Marshall to take on the Diplomats (1 pm).
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