Oct. 20, 2017
BALTIMORE, MD -- The 21st-ranked Johns Hopkins football team held visiting Gettysburg to seven first downs and 139 yards of total offense and rolled up more than 600 yards en route to a 52-0 victory at Homewood Field Friday night. The Blue Jays improve to 6-1 overall and 5-1 in the Centennial Conference with the victory, while the Bullets had a two-game winning streak snapped and slip to 2-5 overall and 2-4 in the Centennial.
The win was also the 150th Centennial Conference victory for Johns Hopkins head coach Jim Margraff. Margraff, who also picked up his first Centennial win against Gettysburg on September 29, 1990 (28-14), is the first coach in CC history to win 150 league games.
The Blue Jays led 14-0 late in the second quarter, but scored twice in the final 4:34 of the opening half to double the lead to 28-0 and needed just 12 seconds of the second half to push the lead to 35.
After forcing Gettysburg's sixth straight punt to start the game, the Blue Jays took over at their own 34 and used 10 plays to go 66 yards with sophomore David Tammaro connecting with junior Luke McFadden down the middle from 15 yards out to push the 14-0 lead to 21-0 with 4:34 left in the first half.
After Gettysburg lost 14 yards on its next possession, the Blue Jays started at the Gettysburg 40 and needed just four plays to cover the 40 yards to the end zone with Tammaro scampering in from six yards out to account for the 28-0 halftime lead.
Any hopes for a Gettysburg comeback were dashed on the first play of the second half when sophomore Patrick Kelly returned the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown to push the lead to 35-0. Kelly's 95-yard kickoff return is tied for the longest in school history; this is the third time a Johns Hopkins player has returned a kickoff 95 yards.
Johns Hopkins added a three-yard touchdown run by junior Tyler Messinger later in the third quarter, a 23-yard scoring run by freshman Nick Leongas early in the fourth and a 22-yard field goal by senior Jamie Sullivan to close out the scoring.
While the 607 yards and season-high 52 points grab the headlines, the work of the Blue Jay defense was equally impressive. The Bullets managed just 48 yards before halftime, including minus two yards in the second quarter, averaged just 2.3 yards on their 61 offensive plays for the 139 total yards and were 2-of-15 on third downs. Two Gettysburg quarterbacks combined to go 5-of-27 for 39 yards and were sacked four times.
Junior Ian Lodge and sophomore Mike Kalanik each posted six tackles, with Kalanik counting 3.5 tackles for losses and a sack among his six stops.
Tammaro was 13-of-26 for 223 yards with two touchdown passes and also rushed for the one score in one half of action. McFadden had a team-high six receptions for 102 yards and one score and senior Ryan Cary rushed 16 times for a game-high 81 yards to power a season-high 292-yard rushing performance for the Blue Jays.
The 607-yard effort comes one game after a 646-yard performance against Franklin & Marshall to give Johns Hopkins back-to-back 600-yard performances for just the second time in school history. The Blue Jays also ran a school-record 101 plays and totaled more than 275 yards rushing (292) and 300 yards passing (315) for just the third time in school history.
Gettysburg was held more 250 yards below its season average and the Bullets had scored at least 20 points in each of their first six games this season.
Notes: The shutout is the first for Johns Hopkins since a 49-0 victory at Dickinson on October 13, 2012 • The win is the 10th straight for Johns Hopkins against Gettysburg and the Blue Jays' 25th straight in the month of October • Hopkins improved to 35-11-1 under Margraff in games played on Friday night • Kalanik's 3.5 TFLs give him 18 on the year - a mark that is already the second-highest single-season total in school history.
- Pride and Poise -