Blue Jays Race Past Juniata, 48-0
BALTIMORE, MD - Host Johns Hopkins scored touchdowns on its first four possessions of the game and got record-breaking performances from several players as the Blue Jays raced past Juniata, 48-0, at Homewood Field Saturday afternoon. The Blue Jays led 31-0 at the half and the Eagles never got inside the JHU 20-yard line as Hopkins won its second straight game to improve to 5-3 overall and 5-2 in the Centennial Conference. Juniata dropped its 10th straight dating back to last season and falls to 0-8 overall and 0-8 in the Centennial.
The game was the 999th in Johns Hopkins history. The Blue Jays will play the 1,000th game in school history next week when they travel to Franklin & Marshall.
Johns Hopkins took all the drama out of this one early as junior Hewitt Tomlin (Jackson, TN/Trinity Christian) capped JHU's first two drives with short touchdown passes to classmate Sam Wernick (Dallas, TX/Dallas Jesuit) that covered six and four yards and polished off drives of 56 and 61 yards. Both came in the first six minutes of the game and neither took longer than 2:38.
The 14-0 lead held for just over seven minutes before Scott Barletta (Sarasota, FL/Cardinal Mooney) scored his second touchdown of the season on a one-yard run with 1:52 remaining in the first quarter. JHU rolled up 183 yards of total offense in the opening 15 minutes as all three scoring drives covered at least 56 yards.
Tomlin and Wernick connected again less than a minute into the second quarter, this time from 56 yards out as Wernick made a stunning one-handed grab of a Tomlin strike down the middle and raced untouched into the end zone. The touchdown reception was his seventh in the last two games and his 13th of the season. His 13 TD receptions breaks the Johns Hopkins single-season record of 12 previously held by Zach Baylin (2000).
The Blue Jays pushed the lead to 31-0 at the half with a 22-yard field by senior Alex Lachman (Livingston, NJ/Livingston) midway though the second quarter and that lead held until the fourth quarter, when JHU scored 17 points to account for the final scoring.
A 36-yard return of a blocked punt by sophomore Adam Schweyer (Allentown, PA/Allentown Central Catholic) started the game-ending scoring spree with 12:21 remaining. It's the second time in as many years that Schweyer has returned a blocked punt for a touchdown against the Eagles as he took one back 13 yards for a score last season.
Lachman added his JHU and Centennial Conference-record-tying 43rd career field goal – this one from 40 yards out – and freshman J.D. Abbott (Newport Coast, CA/Corona del Mar) scored on a 21-yard run to close out the scoring. Lachman tied Ben Scott's Johns Hopkins and Centennial Conference records for career field goals with his 43.
Tomlin became Johns Hopkins' career passing leader as he threw for 316 yards to pass current Blue Jay head coach Jim Margraff. Tomlin has now thrown for 6,702 yards to break Margraff's record of 6,669. In all he was 19-of-27 for the 316 yards with all three of his scoring tosses going to Wernick.
Wernick and senior Tucker Michels (Allendale, NJ/Northern Highlands) both topped 2,000 career receiving yards in the win. Wernick had eight receptions for 149 yards and the three touchdowns to improve his career receiving total to 2,017. Michels added five receptions for 73 yards and now has 2,021.
Juniata struggled to get anything going offensively as the Eagles were forced to punt on their first four possessions and nine times overall. Freshman Gino Ramires (Johnstown, PA/Richland) was 16-of-31 for 106 yards with one interception. Zach McCaulley (Bellwood, PA/Bellwood-Antis) rushed for 59 yards on 20 carries and Julian Valdiserri (Pittsburgh, PA/Mt. Lebanon) added eight receptions for 69 yards.
Johns Hopkins out-gained Juniata 582-179 on the day. The 582 yards are the third-highest single-game total in school history and come on the heels of a 515-yard effort last week at Susquehanna. This is the first in school history that Johns Hopkins has punched up 500 or more yards in back-to-back games.
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