Oct. 4, 2002

Box Score

BALTIMORE, Md. -- Freshman running back T.J. Lyons (Paramus, NJ/Paramus) rushed for 174 yards and one touchdown and Johns Hopkins held off a furious second-half comeback by Gettysburg as the Blue Jays picked up a 23-21 win over the Bullets at Homewood Field Friday night. The win is the sixth straight dating back to last season for the Blue Jays, who improve to 4-0, 1-0 in the Centennial Conference. Gettysburg, which has now lost eight straight to Hopkins, falls to 2-3, 0-2. This is the first time Johns Hopkins has been 4-0 since 1932.

After Gettysburg's Nick Nocar (Baltimore, MD/Gilman) scored his second touchdown of the game to pull the Bullets within 17-14 with 7:43 remaining, the teams traded possessions before JHU stopped Gettysburg on downs at the Blue Jay 40-yard line with 3:04 remaining. One-play and 60 yards later, the Blue Jays led 23-14 as Lyons raced 60 yards for what would prove to be the deciding points.

Gettysburg used just 1:30 to pull with 23-21 with 1:24 remaining as Tom McEvoy (Laurel, MD/St. Johns College) caught a five-yard touchdown pass from Joe Gossweiler (Florham Park, NJ/Hanover Park) to set up the always-exciting onsides kick. However, Lyons came up with the loose ball in a pile of players at the Hopkins 43-yard line and the Blue Jays were able to kill the remaining time on the clock to secure the win.

It didn't look like the Blue Jays would need to recover an onsides kick to seal the win in the first half as they jumped to a 14-0 halftime lead and held the Bullets to just 80 yards of total offense in the first half.

The Blue Jays took a 7-0 lead when sophomore Brian Wolcott (Harding, PA/Wyoming Area) caught a seven-yard touchdown pass from Rob Fernand (Wayne, NJ/Depaul) to cap a 17-play, 78-yard drive to open the game. Hopkins pushed the lead to 14-0 when junior Joe Deluzio (Jeannette, PA/Jeannette) returned a blocked punt 26 yards for a touchdown with 12:38 remaining in the second quarter.

Gettysburg got on the board when Nocar raced nine yards into the end zone with 12:18 remaining in the third quarter to cap a 10-play, 71-yard drive to open the second half. A 21-yard Chris Smolyn (Randolph, NJ/Lenape Valley) field goal pushed the Blue Jays' lead to 17-6 with just over six minutes remaining in the third quarter. That lead stood until Nocar's second touchdown of the game midway through the fourth quarter.

The 174-yard rushing performance is the sixth-highest single-game total by a Johns Hopkins freshman in school history. In all, the Blue Jays counted 270 of their 322 yards on the ground as senior Kevin Johnson (Baltimore, MD/ City) added 65 yards on 13 carries. Gossweiler was 22-of-43 for 202 yards and the one touchdown as GC held a 380-322 advantage in total offense.

The six-game winning streak is the longest for Johns Hopkins since 1995, when the Blue Jays rebounded from a season-opening loss to win six straight. The six-game winning streak is the longest active streak in the Centennial Conference and the longest active streak by a college football team in the state of Maryland.

Johns Hopkins will next be in action next Saturday at Ursinus, while Gettysburg has a bye next weekend.

- 30 -

© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | About Us | Advertise | Feedback | XML RSS Feeds