Nov. 22, 2003

Box Score

BALTIMORE, Md. -- Senior quarterback George Merrell (Bloomsburg, PA/Central Columbia) threw for a career-high 267 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 28 yards and another score to lead the Johns Hopkins football team to a 41-13 victory over King's (PA) in the ECAC Division III South Atlantic Football Championship Game at Homewood Field. Merrell earned his second consecutive ECAC Most Valuable Player Award with the effort and Hopkins ends the season with a school-record 10 wins against just one loss. King's finishes the year at 7-4.

Merrell guided the Blue Jays to a 34-7 lead at the half as Hopkins scored on all six of its first-half possessions. Merrell opened the scoring with an eight-yard touchdown pass to junior Brian Wolcott (Harding, PA/Wyoming Area) less than three minutes into the game to polish off a quick, five-play, 59-yard drive that took just 50 seconds. A 22-yard field goal by freshman Ben Scott (Pittsburgh, PA/Shady Side Academy) capped a 10-play, 71-yard drive to push the lead to 10-0 midway through the second quarter before the nationally-ranked Blue Jay defense came up with a stunning goal-line stand. After the Monarchs drove 68 yards on 13 plays, the Blue Jays came up with the stop on four straight plays from the one-yard line. Senior NG Paul Smith (Lafayette, NJ/Sparta) stopped King's senior RB Richard Jackson (Factoryville, PA/Lackawanna Trail) on third and fourth down to halt the drive.

After coming up with the stop, the Blue Jays proceeded to drive 99 yards on 10 plays to go up 17-0. Merrell converted a fourth-and-10 from the King's 29 as he hit Wolcott for 16 yards. One play later, under heavy pressure, he hit junior RB Adam Cook (New Freedom, PA/Susquehannock) on a 13-yard touchdown pass to account for the scoring.

The Monarchs pulled to within 17-7 when Jackson capped an impressive eight-play, 85-yard drive on King's ensuing possession, but the Blue Jays answered right back. Faced with a fourth-and-two from their own 41, the Blue Jays called a fake punt that sophomore RB T.J. Lyons (Paramus, NJ/Paramus) ran 36 yards to King's 23. Three plays later Merrell scored on a quarterback keeper to make it 24-7. A two-yard touchdown run by Lyons and a 30-yard field goal by Scott accounted for the 34-7 halftime score.

The teams traded second-half touchdowns as sophomore LB Adam Luke (Teague, TX/Teague) scored on a 14-yard fumble recovery for the Blue Jays late in the third quarter and Jackson polished off another impressive drive by King's - this one a 13-play, 96-yard drive - with just over five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter with a three yard scamper. The Blue Jay defense forced three second-half turnovers as senior cornerbacks Joe Deluzio (Jeannette, PA/Jeannette) and Jonas Nelson (East Berlin, PA/Spring Grove) both came up with their second interception of the day after intermission, while sophomore Max Whitacre (Sugarloaf, PA/Bishop Hafey) sacked King's quarterback David Hessler (Rockville, MD/Walter Johnson) to force the fumble that Luke ran in for the touchdown.

Merrell was 19-of-31 for the 267 yards and two touchdowns and rushed six times for the 28 yards and one score. The two touchdown passes give Merrell 18 on the year, which ties the JHU single-season touchdown pass record. In addition, his 1,838 yards of total offense this season are the fourth-highest single-season total in school history. In the last two years the Blue Jays posted a 12-1 record in the 13 games Merrell started.

In addition to the 267 passing yards Hopkins rolled up, the Blue Jays also gained 209 on the ground. Lyons led the way with 113 yards and the one touchdown on just 13 carries. Lyons has rushed for over 100 yards three times in his career and two of the three have come in the playoffs as he rushed for a game-high 112 yards in last season's 24-21 win over Frostburg State in the ECAC Southwest Championship game. Cook rushed for 63 yards on nine carries and established a JHU single-season rushing record with 1.047 rushing yards. Adam Gentile had set the previous record of 1,001 yards in 1998. Cook also became just the fifth player in school history to top 2,000 career rushing yards as he now has 2,054. His 1,736 all-purpose yards this season are also a school record.

Despite officially being sacked just once, Hessler was harassed all day by the Hopkins defense and finished 12-of-39 for 177 yards with four interceptions. Jackson, who entered the game ranked seventh in the nation in rushing at 151.7 yards per game, was held to 109, much of which came after the game was already in hand. T.D. Callahan (Bel Air, MD/John Carroll) added 65 yards on 10 carries and Julian Walker (Bear, DE/William Penn) had four receptions for a game-high 84 yards to lead King's.

The Johns Hopkins defense was led by junior safety Matt Campbell (Hillsborough, NJ/Hillsborough), who finished with a tam-high 11 tackles. Luke added nine stops, including one for a loss, and the fumble return for a touchdown. Deluzio and Nelson both had the two interceptions, with Deluzio adding five tackles and Nelson one. Both had three pass breakups on the day as well. The Blue Jay pass defense ends the season with an amazing 28 interceptions against just two touchdown passes and Hopkins allowed the opposition to complete just 40.5% of its passing attempts on the year.

The championship is the fourth in the last two years for the Blue Jays, who have shared the Centennial Conference title in each of the last two seasons and won the ECAC Southwest Championship in 2002. Prior to last season's nine-win season (9-2), Hopkins had never won more than seven games in a season. In the last two years the Blue Jays are now 19-3 and they are 21-3 in their last 24 games dating back to the end of the 2001 season. Hopkins also completed the 2003 season undefeated at home (6-0) and outscored its six opponents at Homewood Field by a combined scored of 214-51.

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