BALTIMORE, MD – Springfield entered Saturday's NCAA Division III Football Playoff Second Round game at Johns Hopkins averaging a national-best 342.5 yards per game rushing on the strength of its vaunted triple option attack.
One play into the game, the Pride had 56 yards on one carry and had moved from their own 27-yard line to the Blue Jay 17. Six plays later, Springfield was in the end zone on the strength of a four-yard touchdown run from quarterback TJ Welch, who capped the game-opening seven-play, 73-yard drive with his 12th rushing touchdown of the season.
By the time the Pride scored again midway through the fourth quarter, the Blue Jay defense had figured things out and the Blue Jay offense had scored three straight touchdowns in the first half and tacked on another early in the fourth quarter to grab a 27-7 lead that wasn't seriously threatened over the final 10 minutes of the game.
With a 34-14 victory, Johns Hopkins moves into the third round of the playoffs, where it will face Salisbury, which topped Endicott, 35-28, in another second round game on Saturday. The site of that game will be announced later on Saturday or on Sunday.
Johns Hopkins answered the game-opening Springfield touchdown with a methodical drive of its own, one that ate just under six minutes off the clock and covered 73 yards with quarterback Bay Harvey dropping a perfectly-thrown ball to the corner of the end zone to junior Robby Enright, whose one-handed catch evened the score.
The Enright touchdown was the first of three the Blue Jays would score on their first three possessions of the game as they added a 15-yard Josh Moore touchdown reception early in the second quarter and an eight-yard Harvey touchdown run midway through the period to extend out to a 20-7 lead.
While the offense was busy scoring on its first three possessions, the Blue Jay defense dialed in. After the game-opening 73-yard drive, the Pride generated just 30 yards of total offense on 16 plays covering four more first-half possessions with just four yards on its final three drives before the break.
Johns Hopkins had a golden chance to extend the 20-7 lead late in the first half, but a diving interception by Nick Gonzalez inside the five-yard line with just over a minute remaining before halftime killed a Blue Jay threat.
The 13-point lead held through a third quarter in which both defenses were on-point and forced a combined four punts on the first four possessions of the period.
Johns Hopkins took over at its own 32 late in the third after the second of Springfield's two punts in the period and milked just under five minutes off the clock before capping a nine-play, 68-yard drive early in the fourth quarter with a six-yard Cole Crotty touchdown reception to grab the 27-7 lead.
Springfield would answer with a 10-play, 85-yard drive that was fueled by a 44-yard Cam Pedro run and ended with Welch connecting with Sal Posillico from 12 yards out to cut the deficit to 27-14 with 6:28 to play. Posillico's touchdown came on a fourth-and-three and was the second of two, fourth-down conversions for the Pride on the drive.
The Blue Jays would answer and put the game away with their final scoring drive of the game, a nine-play drive that took all but 2:06 off the clock with Harvey going in from a yard out on third-and-goal to seal the victory.
Inside the Box Score – Johns Hopkins
• Harvey was 14-of-24 for 177 yards and three touchdowns and also rushed for a team-high 93 yards and two scores.
• Geoff Schroeder added 83 yards rushing on 18 carries as the Blue Jays' nearly split their 357 yards of total offense evenly with 180 yards on the ground and 177 through the air.
• Browning Trainer paced the Blue Jays defensively as he had career-highs of 12 tackles and 3.0 tackles for loss. Sophomore Spencer Kramer added a career-high seven tackles and Carson Bourdo added six stops for the Blue Jays.
• The Blue Jay defense held Springfield to just 193 yards rushing, just 150 below it season average and 47 yards fewer than it had rushed for in any game this season. The Pride amassed 100 yards on two plays (56, 44), but just 93 yards on 38 other rushing attempts.
Inside the Box Score – Springfield
• Stanford Davis, who opened the game with the 56-yard carry on the first play, led the Pride with 71 yards on seven carries, while Pedro added 40 yards on three carries.
• Welch rushed for 25 yards on nine carries with the one touchdown and was 3-for-4 for 31 yards and the one score.
• Nick Peterson had a game-high 15 tackles and one pass breakup and Hunter Hayes added nine tackles to lead the way defensively for the Pride.
Notes of Interest
• Johns Hopkins is now 16-13 all-time in the NCAA Playoffs, including 4-1 under head coach Dan Wodicka.
• The Blue Jays are in the round of 16 for the 10th time in 14 appearances in the NCAA Playoffs.
• Harvey became Johns Hopkins' career leader in rushing touchdowns by a quarterback with his two today as he now has 22 to his credit. He had been tied with David Tammaro.
• Harvey's three TD passes move him into a tie for second-place on JHU's career TD passes list with 74 (Hewitt Tomlin (2008-11)). He also became the third quarterback in school history to top 7,000 career passing yards with his 177 today (7,156).
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