Game Notes | Johns Hopkins Welcomes Penn State for Homecoming - Johns Hopkins University Athletics (2024)

MARTY CORCORAN

Men's Lacrosse 4/4/2024 7:50:00 AM Ernie Larossa - Director of Athletic Communications

Blue Jays, Nittany Lions Set for Top-10 Showdown at Homewood

The Game
• Johns Hopkins (7-3, 2-0 B1G) welcomes Penn State (7-2, 1-1 B1G) to Homewood Field for Homecoming. The game will air live on ESPNU (2 pm).

When Last We Saw Them
• Johns Hopkins picked up its second straight win to open Big Ten play as the Blue Jays topped Michigan, 15-11, at Homewood Field last Saturday.
• The Nittany Lions had a seven-game winning streak snapped as Maryland rallied for a 13-11 win at Penn State on Sunday night.

The Facts
• This is the 137th season of Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse. JHU first fielded a team in 1883.
• Johns Hopkins enters this week's game with an all-time record of 1,023-373-15 (.730).
• Johns Hopkins is the only men's lacrosse program in the nation with 1,000 or more all-time victories. The Blue Jays picked up the program's 1,000th victory with an 11-10 win over Loyola on February 19, 2022.
• JHU owns 44 national championships with nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA crowns to its credit.

Poll Position
• Johns Hopkins is ranked in the top 10 in the nation in both major national polls as the Blue Jays are 10th in the USILA Coaches Poll and 7th in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll this week.
• The NCAA has also begun releasing its RPI rankings. Through games of April 2, Johns Hopkins has the #4 RPI in the nation.
• Penn State is also ranked in the top 10 in both polls as the Nittany Lions check in at 7th in the USILA Coaches Poll and 8th in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll. Penn State is ninth in the most recent RPI listing.

Poll Notes of Interest
• Including this week's poll, the USILA has issued 540 polls since the debut poll in 1973. Johns Hopkins has appeared in the top 20 in 520 of those 540 polls and has been ranked in the top 10 in 440 of the 540.
• The Johns Hopkins Athletic Communications office uses the USILA Poll to reflect JHU's official national ranking at the time of a game. The poll dates to 1973 and is the longest-running, continuous men's lacrosse poll in the nation.

Q4 | 5:02
JHU 14 - 9 Michigan

SHOWTIME! Flashy pass from Collison to Degnon for the calculated GOAL! 🪄🔥#GoHop #WeWantMore #SCTop10 pic.twitter.com/T8dz90nvKK

— JHU Men's Lacrosse (@jhumenslacrosse) March 30, 2024

Series History
• Johns Hopkins and Penn State will be meeting for the 19th time this week. The series dates to a 14-1 Johns Hopkins victory in 1916 and the Blue Jays are 13-5 all-time against the Nittany Lions.
• A complete look at the series history can be found on page 17.

On This Date
• This week's game will be the 13th game Johns Hopkins has played on April 6. The Blue Jays are 10-2 all-time on this date and have won their last three games played on April 6.
• In JHU's last game on this date, the Blue Jays topped Rutgers, 15-13, in 2019 on the strength of a five-goal, three-assist effort from Joey Epstein and a 21-of-30 showing at the X from Kyle Prouty.

Showing Our Depth
• The Blue Jay depth has been on display this season as 20 different players have appeared in all 10 games and 25 have appeared in eight of the 10.
• Close games have not resulted in fewer players appearing. In the seven games JHU has played that have been decided by four goals or less, at least 26 players have appeared in six of the seven.

Offensive Notes of Interest
• Since the start of the 2022 season, the Blue Jays are 24-5 when they score 12 or more goals.
• In 112 full quarters since the start of the 2023 season (does not include overtime periods), the Blue Jays have scored two or more goals in 90 quarters and four or more in 50 quarters.
• This season, in 40 full quarters (does not include overtime periods), the Blue Jays have scored two or more goals in 34 quarters and four or more in 19 quarters.
• Johns Hopkins is averaging 12.80 goals per game this season (24th in the nation) with at least 11 goals scored in nine of 10 games thus far.
• In 10 games, the Blue Jays have gotten goals from 15 different players and 20 different players have at least one point.
• Johns Hopkins averaged 12.56 goals per game in 2023. That output was the highest scoring average for the Blue Jays since 2015, when Hopkins averaged 13.0 goals per game. The 12.56 goals per game are also the second-best mark at JHU since 2004.
• As a team, Johns Hopkins shot 32.9% in 2023, a mark that ranked 14th in the nation. The 32.9% shooting percentage was the highest for JHU since 2015 (.331).

40 Straight For Degnon
• Graduate student attackman Garrett Degnon will carry a school-record 40-game goal-scoring streak into this week's game against Penn State after he scored three goals in the game against Michigan. The streak is currently tied for longest active streak in the nation.
• During his 40-game goal-scoring run, Degnon has scored 107 goals and has 33 multi-goal games and 26 games with 3+ goals to his credit.
• Degnon's 40-game run is the longest in school history after he broke the previous record of 37 against Navy. Terry Riordan originally set the mark at 37 games from 1992-95 and Ryan Brown matched that with a 37-game run from 2013-16.
• The 40-game goal-scoring run for Degnon and the 37-game runs for Brown and Riordan are the only three goal-scoring streaks of 30+ games in Johns Hopkins history.

Strength of Schedule
• The Blue Jays' 13 regular season opponents are currently a combined 83-37 for a win percentage of 69.2%. This gives Johns Hopkins the highest cumulative opponent winning percentage in the nation (among all games on a team's 2024 schedule).
• The 10 opponents JHU has played thus far are currently a combined 64-27 for a win percentage of 70.3%. This gives Johns Hopkins the highest cumulative opponent winning percentage among teams played to-date in the nation.
• Using this week's USILA Poll as a gauge, the Blue Jays will play eight games against teams ranked in the top 20 in the nation. The eight include Virginia (2nd), Syracuse (4th), Georgetown (6th), Penn State (7th), Denver (8th), Maryland (9th), Michigan (16th) and Towson (20th). In addition, Ohio State, Rutgers, Navy and North Carolina are also listed as receiving votes.

Causing Trouble
• In 10 games thus far, the Blue Jays have 83 caused turnovers to their credit (8.30/game) with 10 coming in the 13-5 win against Towson, nine in the 11-9 win at Georgetown, 12 against Loyola, 11 at Virginia and 13 against Michigan. The 13 CTs against Michigan are the second-most in program history and marked the 23rd time in program history that the Blue Jays have been credited with 10 or more CTs in a game (CTs became an official stat in 2009).
• JHU currently ranks 29th in the nation - and third in the Big Ten - with its 8.30 caused turnovers per game.
• The 135 CTs the Blue Jays amassed last season are a JHU single-season record, while the 7.50 CTs/game narrowly missed the school-record of 7.63 (2022). Caused turnovers were first kept as an official statistic in 2009.

Defensive Notes of Interest
• The Blue Jays have held their first 10 opponents scoreless for a period of 10 minutes or longer a total of 18 times. 11 of those 18 streaks have been 12+ minutes in length.
• In the last nine games, the opposition has gone scoreless for a stretch of 10 minutes or longer 17 times with four of those coming against Towson and two each against Georgetown, Loyola , North Carolina, Rutgers and Michigan.
• Dating back to the start of the 2023 season, the Blue Jays have held their 28 opponents scoreless for a period of at least 10 minutes 42 different times - 33 of those have come in the last 21 games.
• This season, in 40 full quarters (does not include overtime periods), the Blue Jays have allowed two or less goals in 24 quarters and four or more in just seven quarters.
• The five goals the Blue Jays allowed against Towson were the fewest JHU has surrendered since Hopkins topped Ohio State, 6-5, in the 2018 Big Ten Semifinals.
• Johns Hopkins is 20-1 under head coach Peter Milliman and defensive coordinator Jamison Koesterer when holding the opposition to 10 goals or less.

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