Box Score BALTIMORE – Sophomore Izzy Thompson scored less than one minute into overtime lifting host Johns Hopkins University to a 2-1 victory against Tufts University in the NCAA Elite 8 Sunday at Homewood Field. The victory propels the Blue Jays into the Final Four.
Tufts had scored with 6:30 remaining in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 1-1. However, after the game went to overtime, the Blue Jays (19-2) earned a penalty corner and scored 58 seconds into the extra session for the victory. The Jumbos' season ends with a 15-5 record.
The Jumbos and Blue Jays battled back and forth, but had nothing to show for it until the third quarter. In a scoreless first half the teams combined for just six shots.
Less than three minutes into the third, Blue Jay sophomore Abby Birk sent the insert on a corner beyond the arc to where the ball found its way to sophomore Maddie Brown-Scherer. She fired it to senior teammate Katie McErlean who was right in the middle of the arc for a one-time shot into the bottom left corner of the cage. This was McErlean's 14th goal of the season.
As time in the fourth quarter wound down, the Jumbos would get the equalizer. Off a corner that was inserted by senior Marguerite Salamone, sophomore Sophie Schoeni sent a pass to junior Beth Krikorian who fired a shot from the top of the arc that found its way through a pile of Blue Jays and into the cage. The tally was Krikorian's eighth of the season, second of the weekend and seventh in the last eight games.
Hopkins earned a pair of corners with five minutes to play in regulation, but all they could manage was a blocked shot by Sarah Matyas and the game went to overtime.
Fifty seconds into the extra period Hopkins was awarded a corner. Birk inserted the ball to the top of the arc to Brown-Scherer who then drilled the ball towards the Jumbo goal. Thompson tipped it in from the back door to win it for the Blue Jays.
For the game Tufts was awarded three corners while Hopkins earned eight. The hosts outshot the Jumbos 8-3 and scored on the only two shots they put on net. Hopkins sophomore goaltender Kaitlin Hall stopped two shots.
The game was a rematch of last year's NCAA semifinal won by Tufts 3-1.
The Blue Jays will play Franklin & Marshall in the national semifinals at 11:00 am next Saturday at Spooky Nook Sports in Manheim, Pa.
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