ITHACA, NY – One year ago, in his first game as the head football coach at Johns Hopkins, Dan Wodicka watched his Blue Jays spot host Ithaca a 17-0 lead before rallying for a 27-23 victory at Butterfield Stadium.
Fast forward 365 days and the Blue Jays, playing in the same stadium against the same opponent, didn't allow any of the same drama as they had in Wodicka's debut as they raced out to a 28-point halftime lead and cruised to a 42-14 win against the Bombers in the season opener for both teams.
The Blue Jays scored on four of their first five possessions of the game with two of their four scores set up by a defense that forced a piar of first-half turnovers. The early surge fueled Hopkins' 14th consecutive win in a season opener.
After the first three possessions of the game – two for Ithaca and one for Johns Hopkins – resulted in punts, the Blue Jays got rolling with a four-play, 65-yard scoring drive that quarterback Bay Harvey polished off with an eight-yard touchdown pass to junior Ty Pugliano with 6:38 on the first-quarter clock.
The Blue Jay defense came up with the first of its two first-half turnovers two plays later as Brian Doherty intercepted a Matthew Parker pass along the sidelines to set Johns Hopkins up at its own 35-yard line. Ten plays later, on the first play of the second quarter, it was Geoff Schroeder powering from the two-yard line to double the lead to 14-0.
The Bombers pieced together their best drive of the opening 30 minutes on their ensuing possession, moving to the Blue Jay 37-yard line, but Parker's third-down pass was incomplete and he was then sacked and fumbled on fourth down; Will Seibert recovered the fumble and raced down the sideline before being tackled at the Ithaca 25. Three plays later, Schroeder went in again from the two to give the Blue Jays a 21-point lead.
Johns Hopkins would tack on one more score before the break to account for the 28-0 halftime score. After forcing the fourth Ithaca punt of the half, the Blue Jays methodically moved 44 yards on 11 plays with Harvey scoring on a naked bootleg around the left end to polish off the drive.
After winning the coin toss and electing to defer at the start of the game, the Blue Jays ate away nearly half of the third quarter with a 15-play, 80-yard drive that took 7:09 off the clock to open the period. Johns Hopkins converted once on third down and once on fourth to keep the drive alive and Schroeder again finished it off, this time from the one, to extend the lead to 35-0.
Ithaca got on the board late in the third quarter when Parker capped an 11-play, 75-yard drive with a two-yard touchdown pass to Nicholas Lang. Those were the first points the Blue Jays had allowed in a regular season game since the third quarter of the eighth game last season (a streak of just under 12 full quarters).
Freshman Brock Dandridge took over in the backfield in the fourth quarter for the Blue Jays and made an immediate impact. On the first carry of his career, he went left and raced 59 yards for touchdown to put the finishing touches on a three-play, 80-yard drive that closed out the scoring for the Blue Jays. Ithaca would add a touchdown in the final four minutes to account for the 42-14 final score.
Inside the Box Score – Johns Hopkins
• Making his first appearance since the third game of the 2024 season, Harvey was 16-of-18 for 161 yards and one score and added the rushing touchdown.
• Schroeder (16-80-3) and Dandridge (8-79-1) led a rushing attack that totaled 222 yards and accounted for five of Hopkins' six touchdowns.
• The 59-yard run for Dandridge is the longest by a Johns Hopkins freshman since Lyndon O'Connor's 69-yard touchdown run against Dickinson in 2008.
• Jack Smith paced the Blue Jay defense with a career-high 14 tackles, while Browning Trainer added 10 stops, including 2.5 for losses.
• The Blue Jay defense totaled nine tackles for loss, five sacks and six pass breakups and forced three turnovers in the victory. They held the Bombers to 282 yards of total offense, including just 88 on the ground.
Inside the Box Score – Ithaca
• Parker was 19-of-35 for 194 yards with one touchdown against two interceptions. Lang was his favorite target as he had six catches for 45 yards with the one score.
• Chris Scully accounted for 57 of Ithaca's 88 rushing yards.
• Sam Tourangeau posted a team-high 12 tackles, while Joe Spirra added 11 for the Bombers
Johns Hopkins will return to action on Saturday, September 13 when the Blue Jays welcome John Carroll to Homewood Field (12 pm). This will be the first-ever meeting between the Blue Jays and Blue Streaks.
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