BALTIMORE, MD – The 14th-ranked Johns Hopkins football team raced to a 42-0 halftime lead and never looked back in what became a 49-0 victory against MIT in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Division III Playoffs at Homewood Field Saturday afternoon. The Blue Jays (10-1) scored on six of eight first-half possessions with each of their scoring drives covering at least 50 yards.
With the win, Johns Hopkins moves on to the second round of the tournament for the fourth time in five years. The Blue Jays will take on Frostburg St. in the second round; that game will be played on Saturday, November 24 with the site scheduled to be announced on Sunday, November 18.
The Blue Jays got all the offense they would need on their second and third possessions of the game as junior David Tammaro capped each of those drives with touchdown passes to freshman Harrison Wellmann. Wellmann opened the scoring with a 35-yard touchdown reception to polish off a five-play, 60-yard drive midway through the first period and then added his second touchdown reception, this one from 14 yards out, late in the period to give the Blue Jays an early 14-point lead. His second score was the final play in a five-play, 82-yard drive.
The 14-point lead held until midway through the second quarter, when Tammaro scampered 23 yards for a touchdown on second-and-10 from the Engineer 23-yard line; the final 34 yards of the drive were covered by a pair of Tammaro rushes.
The 21-point lead doubled in the final 3:04 of the first half to account for the 42-0 score at halftime. The Blue Jays put together scoring drives of 73, 73 and 75 yards to quickly turn that 21-0 lead into the 42-point margin.
The first of those drives, an eight-play, 73-yarder, ended when Tammaro hit senior Luke McFadden with a 33-yard touchdown strike with 3:04 on the first-half clock.
After MIT was forced to punt by the Blue Jay defense – the sixth of seven straight punts Johns Hopkins forced to open the game – Johns Hopkins took over at its own 27 with 2:08 left in the first half. Three plays and a 64-yard touchdown run by senior Stuart Walters later and the Blue Jays had pushed the lead out to 35-0.
After another MIT punt, Hopkins had one final drive before halftime – a drive that started at its own 25 with just 48 seconds left on the clock. Four plays later, the Blue Jays were faced with a fourth-and-one at the MIT 49 and drew up a handoff to senior Tyler Messinger, who broke through the line untouched and raced into the end zone to close out the first-half scoring.
While the Blue Jay offense was busy scoring on six of eight first-half possessions, the Blue Jay defense was putting its mark on the game. The Engineers gained 21 yards on their first drive and 18 on their second, but they finished the first half with just 62 yards of total offense.
Johns Hopkins, which closed out the scoring with a 14-yard Nick Leongas-to-Austin Hartman touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, rolled up a school playoff record 677 yards that included 397 yard through the air and 280 on the ground.
The Blue Jay defense posted its first shutout in 16 all-time NCAA Tournament games and the 200 total yards the Engineers amassed are the second-fewest Johns Hopkins has allowed this season.
Tammaro was 21-of-27 for 321 yards with three touchdowns and also rushed for 48 yards and another score. Ryan Hubley had a game-high eight receptions for 79 yards, while McFadden (3-80-1), Emmett Turner (3-61-0) and Wellmann (3-58-2) combined for nine receptions for 199 yards and three scores. Messinger paced the 280-yard ground game with six rushes for 74 yards and the one touchdown.
Freshman Nick Seidel posted a team-high five tackles for the Johns Hopkins defense, which allowed just 3.2 yards per play, held the Engineers to a 5-of-17 showing on third down attempts and forced 10 punts on 13 MIT possessions.
MIT quarterback Udgam Goyal was 6-of-18 for 74 yards and John Robertson rushed for a team-high 71 yards to pace the Engineers offensively. Will Exson posted a game-high nine tackles to pace the MIT defense, which forced three Blue Jay fumbles, but couldn't consistently slow a Blue Jay offense that averaged 9.0 yards per play.
Notes: Johns Hopkins ran its winning streak to nine games with today's victory – this is the eighth winning streak of nine games or longer for the Blue Jays under head coach Jim Margraff • JHU's 677 yards are the fourth-highest single-game total in school history, while the 397 passing yards are the second-most in school history in an NCAA Playoff game • Johns Hopkins set a school record for yards in a half with 505 in the first half.
- 30 -
Hopkins Races Past MIT, 49-0, Into NCAA Second Round
/seasons/2018/boxscores/20181117_k2nw.xml
2018
MIT
0
Johns Hopkins
49
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MIT (9-2) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No. 14 Johns Hopkins (10-1) | 14 | 28 | 0 | 7 | 49 |
Nov 17, 2018