BALTIMORE, MD – The Johns Hopkins football team wasted little time jumping on visiting Gettysburg as the Blue Jays scored 14 points in the first five minutes and built a 42-0 halftime lead en route to a 63-7 win at Homewood Field Friday night. The win improves the Blue Jays' record to 5-2 overall and 4-2 in the Centennial Conference, while the Bullets slip to 1-6 overall and 1-5 in the Centennial.
On a record-breaking night, Hopkins used a two-play 90-yard drive on its first possession to take the lead for good as senior quarterback David Tammaro connected with sophomore Harrison Wellmann on plays of 52 and 38 yards to cover the 90 yards in just 38 seconds.
A blocked punt return for a touchdown by Bailey Finkelberg just over three minutes later gave the Blue Jays the early 14-point lead and jump-started the 42-point first half outburst for Johns Hopkins, which hadn't scored more than 41 points in a game season, but had 42 by halftime.
A three-touchdown spree in a span of less than five minutes midway through the second quarter quickly turned the 14-0 lead into a 35-0 advantage. Jacob Yohr caught an 18-yard pass from Tammaro, Wellmann added a 52-yard touchdown reception to his earlier 38-yard score and Tammaro raced 69 yards to account for those three Blue Jay touchdowns.
The 35-0 lead was 42-0 at the half thanks to a four-play, 76-yard drive late in the second quarter that was capped by a 56-yard touchdown pass from Charlie Katz to freshman Jonas Larson. The 42 points the Blue Jays scored in the first half mark the eighth time in school history that Hopkins has scored 42 or more points in a half.
Johns Hopkins added second half touchdowns from Luke Yakely (14-yard run), Danny Wolf (nine-yard run) and Ryan Stevens (eight-yard run) to push the lead to 63-0 midway through the fourth quarter before Max Schelling's four-yard run for Gettysburg with 4:16 to play helped the Bullets avoid the shutout. Schelling's touchdown came one play after a Gettysburg interception gave the Bullets possession at the Blue Jay four-yard line. The touchdowns for Wolf and Stevens are the first of their careers.
Tammaro was 16-of-21 for 307 yards and three touchdowns and added 70 rushing yards and the one rushing touchdown, while Wellmann had nine receptions for 224 yard and the two scores; neither played a snap in the second half. In all, 14 different players had at least one reception for Johns Hopkins with four Blue Jay quarterbacks combining to throw for 502 yards, the third-highest single-game total in school history.
Defensively, the Blue Jays held four Gettysburg quarterbacks to 1-of-22 passing for one yard with one interception. The one passing yard allowed is the second-lowest total in school history; Washington & Lee had zero passing yards against Johns Hopkins in 1961.
Chris James had a team-high seven tackles for Johns Hopkins, which also got five tackles, one interception and one forced fumble from Robert Fletcher and five tackles, including a sack, from Will Tobey.
Freshman quarterback Logan Edmond rushed for a game-high 159 yards for Gettysburg, but he was just 1-of-19 passing for the one yard and one interception. Edmond led a Gettysburg rushing attack that generated 264 yards and the one touchdown.
Johns Hopkins will return to action on Saturday, November 2 when the Blue Jays travel to Muhlenberg to take on the Mules.
Notes: Tammaro went over 9,000 career passing yards (9,163), 10,000 yards of total offense (10,074) and became Hopkins' career leader in touchdown passes as his three tonight give him 75 in his career • Wellmann's 224 receiving yards are the third-highest single-game total in school history • JHU rolled up 682 yards of total offense – the third-highest single-game total in school history.
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