BALTIMORE, MD - It's safe to say that Johns Hopkins senior Brian Christopher (Springfield, PA/Springfield) enjoys overtime. For the third time in four games and the fourth time in his career, Christopher found the back of the net in overtime - this time just 36 seconds into the first extra session to lift the Blue Jays to a 12-11 victory over Brown in the first round of the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Tournament at Homewood Field Saturday afternoon. The win is the seventh straight for the Blue Jays (10-4), who move into the quarterfinals for the 19th straight year with the victory. Brown, which forced overtime with a goal with just eight seconds left in regulation, ends the season at 12-4.

The Blue Jays led 11-10 with less than 30 seconds to play and came up with a loose ball on the crease in front of goalie Michael Gvozden (Millersville, MD/Severna Park), but an errant pass to midfield was scooped up by the Bears and they got it back to Kyle Hollingsworth (Darien, CT/Darien) behind the goal. Hollingsworth dodged from behind the goal, only to be stripped of the ball coming around the side. With the ball loose in front, he managed to shovel the rolling ball through traffic into the corner of the net to force the extra session.

In overtime, sophomore Matt Dolente (Phoenixville, PA/Malvern Prep) won the opening faceoff and the Blue Jays quickly called timout. Out of the timeout, Hopkins circled the ball once before working it to Christopher at the top of the box. He dodged to his right, got a step on his defender and blew a shot into the top corner before a late slide could help. A week ago it was Loyola he beat in the second overtime; 10 days before that he lifted the Blue Jays past Towson with 1.2 seconds remaining in the second extra session.

"The last three weeks have been pretty exciting," Christopher noted in the post-game press conference. "I thought I had a good opportunity to get to the goal and once I got some space I was able to get off a good shot," he added of his game-winner.

Johns Hopkins had jumped out to a 3-0 lead less than nine minutes into the first quarter as junior Chris Boland (Columbia, MD/Boys' Latin) sandwiched the first two of his five goals around a tally by classmate Steven Boyle (Derry, NH/Pinkerton Academy). Despite the quick start, the Blue Jays found themselves in a 3-3 tie less than 90 seconds into the second quarter as Thomas Muldoon (Oakton, VA/St. Alban's) and Brady Williams (Columbus, OH/Upper Arlington) struck before the end of the first quarter and Rob Schlesinger (Medfield, MA/Noble and Greenough) scored in a scramble situation with 13:35 remaining in the second quarter.


Three times before the end of the third quarter the Blue Jays built two-goal leads, only to have the resilient Bears battle back to force a 7-7 tie at the end of the third.

The Blue Jays moved the 3-3 tie to a 6-4 advantage at the half as Boyle, Boland and Kyle Wharton (Great Valley, PA/Haverford School) all scored in a six-minute span midway through the period with only an Andrew Feinberg (Owings Mills, MD/McDonogh) goal mixed in for the Bears during that time. Neither team scored in the final 7:56 of the second quarter.

Brown got three of the four goals in the third quarter to account for the 7-7 tie at the end of the third. A Nic Bell (Catlett, VA/Highland) goal less than one minute into the third was answered 59 seconds later by Christopher's first of the game, but Muldoon and Collins Carey (Clarksville, MD/McDonogh) fired home the only goals in the final 13 minutes of the quarter as the Blue Jays were held scoreless for the final 13:12 after Christopher's goal.

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2009-05-09