Oct. 7, 2009

Johns Hopkins-Dickinson Football Notes in PDF Format

The Game: Johns Hopkins (4-1, 3-0 Centennial) hits the road for the second consecutive week as the Blue Jays head to Carlisle, Pennsylvania to take on Dickinson (5-0, 3-0 CC). The Blue Jays and Red Devils are the only two teams in the Centennial Conference that stand at 3-0 in league play.

Last Week: Johns Hopkins picked up its fourth straight win and ninth in its last 10 regular season games with a 40-27 victory at Muhlenberg. Dickinson ran its record to 5-0 with a 21-3 win at Moravian last Saturday.

Poll Position: Johns Hopkins is listed as receiving votes in this week's AFCA Division III Coaches' Poll (11 points). This is the third straight week JHU has received votes in the poll.
Since the formation of the AFCA Poll in 1999, there have been 108 weekly polls. Johns Hopkins has been ranked in the top 25 for a total of 17 weeks and been listed as receiving votes 34 times (including this week) for 51 total appearances in the 108 weekly polls.
Dickinson is making its first appearance in the AFCA Tope 25 this week as the Red Devils check in at number 25.

Against the Top 25: This week's game at 25th-ranked Dickinson will be JHU's ninth all-time against a team ranked in the AFCA Top 25 (poll debuted in 1999). Johns Hopkins is 3-5 all-time against teams ranked in the top 25.

The Coaches: Johns Hopkins is coached by Jim Margraff `82, who is in his 20th season as the head coach at Homewood. Margraff is JHU's all-time leader in games won (123) and coached (199) and enters this week's game with a career record of 123-73-3 (.626). He has more than twice as many wins as any other coach in school history (Ray Van Orman is second with 60 wins).
Dickinson is coached by Darwin Breaux, who enters this week's game against Johns Hopkins with an all-time record of 107-62-1 (.626) in 17 seasons with the Red Devils.

Margraff's 200th: This week's game against Dickinson will be the 200th for Jim Margraff as the head coach at Johns Hopkins.

Captain, My Captain: In a vote of the returning players on the 2009 team, seniors Andrew Kase, Tim Miller, Glenn Rocca and Colin Wixted were selected as captains for the season. Kase is in his second season as a captain, while this is the first year as a captain for Miller, Rocca and Wixted.

Homecoming: Johns Hopkins celebrates Homecoming in the spring as part of festivities surrounding a home men's lacrosse game. That's not to say that the Blue Jay football team doesn't enjoy Homecoming. In fact, this week's game at Dickinson is the second of three straight road games Johns Hopkins will play that is the Homecoming game for its opponent (Muhlenberg - Dickinson - Juniata).

Home(wood) Field Advantage: Johns Hopkins improved to 7-2 at Homewood Field since the start of the 2008 season with the win over Moravian on September 26.

More Home(wood) Field Advantage: JHU improved its record to 41 games over .500 in home games under Jim Margraff with the win over Moravian. The Blue Jays are now 70-29-1 (.705) at Homewood under Margraff.

Road Warriors: The Blue Jays posted a 4-1 record on the road last season and JHU is 9-3 since the start of the 2007 season on the road. JHU is 31-12 on the road since the start of the 2001 season.

Escape Artists: Johns Hopkins used a one-yard touchdown run by Andrew Kase with 49 seconds remaining to pull out the 35-31 win over Randolph-Macon on September 12. It's the first time Johns Hopkins has won a game in the final minute since October 6, 2007, when Alex Lachman nailed a 40-yard field goal as time expired to lift the Blue Jays past Dickinson, 20-17.

Streaking: Since the start of the 2002 season the Blue Jays sport a 57-23 (.713) record. Taking it back farther the Blue Jays are 63-26 (.708) since the start of the 2001 season and 68-31 (.687) since the beginning of the 2000 season. The 68 wins the Blue Jays have amassed this decade are already the most wins in a decade in school history. The previous record of 55 wins came in the 1990s.

200 and 200: Johns Hopkins totaled 216 rushing yards and 243 passing yards in a 41-23 win over Gettysburg on September 18. That effort marked the 24th time since 1955 that JHU has totaled 200 or more yards rushing and passing in the same game. Exactly half of those 24 have come since Jim Margraff took over as the Blue Jays' coach in 1990. JHU is 10-2 when rushing and passing for 200 or more yards under Margraff and 22-2 overall in such games.

Scoring Surge: Johns Hopkins has scored 27 or more points in each of the four games during the current four-game winning streak. This is the first time JHU has scored 27 or points in four straight games (in one season) since the final four games of the 1968 season. Johns Hopkins has never scored 27 or more points in five straight games.

Senior Andrew Kase needs three TDs to tie the JHU school record for most overall touchdowns.

Kase Climbing: Johns Hopkins senior running back Andrew Kase rushed 32 times for 149 yards and two touchdowns last week at Muhlenberg and sealed the game with 82 yards and one touchdown on JHU's final two drives of the game.
Kase has rushed for 596 yards (119.2/game) and eight touchdowns and has eight receptions for 84 yards and one TD. He ranks first in the Centennial Conference in rushing, third in scoring (10.8 ppg) and sixth in all-purpose yards (136.0).
Among his many records, he holds JHU career marks for rushing yards (3,550), rushing touchdowns (30) and 100-yard rushing games (19) and ranks eighth in Centennial Conference history in rushing yards and sixth in 100-yard rushing games.
Kase has rushed for more than 180 yards six times in his career. No other player in school history has done this more than three times.

Tomlin Rolling: Sophomore quarterback Hewitt Tomlin tied his career-high with three touchdown passes while going 20-of-33 for 224 yards last week at Muhlenberg. It was his third straight 200-yard passing game - one shy of the JHU record. Tomlin is now 100-of-150 (.667) for 1,063 yards with nine touchdowns and three INTs in five games. In the pass-happy Centennial Conference, Tomlin ranks second in completion percentage, third in pass efficiency rating (142.0), fourth in passing yards per game (212.6) and fifth in total offense (225.2).

Crowley Emerging: Junior Dan Crowley came to Johns Hopkins as a quarterback and spent his freshman year as a backup. Just prior to the start of the 2008 season, he made the move to wide receiver and he is quickly emerging as one of the top threats in the Centennial Conference.
Crowley currently leads the Blue Jays with 22 receptions for 401 yards with three touchdowns. His 18.2 yards per reception is five yards higher than anyone else on the team. He enjoyed the finest game of his career against Moravian with six receptions for 124 yards and two touchdowns.
Crowley currenly ranks fifth in the Centennial Conference in receiving yards per game (80.2) and 10th in receptions per game (4.4). In addition, his 18.2 yards per reception is the highest among all players in the league with 20 or more receptions.

Leading the Way: Johns Hopkins ranks fourth in the Centennial Conference in scoring offense (30.0), third in rushing offense (165.6) and fifth in passing offense (214.4) and total offense (380.0). While the players who carry, throw and catch the ball get most of the attention, the Blue Jay offense is led in large part by a seasoned offensive line.
Seniors Mike Stoffel, Tim Miller and Anthony Catanzano, junior Ryan Lino and sophomore Doug Drummond are the primary starters on the line, with senior John Fox and sophomore Ed Rodger also seeing action early in the season. The unit has allowed just one sack on 154 pass attempts this season.

Lachman Third in Field Goals, Kick-Scoring: Junior Alex Lachman continues to inch up in the Johns Hopkins record book. He hit a pair of field goals and 4-of-5 extra points against Muhlenberg to earn Centennial Conference Special Teams Player of the Week honors. He ranks third in school history in career field goals (24) and career points by a kicker (143) and leads the Centennial in kick-scoring (7.2 ppg) and field goals (6) this season.

Kale Sweeney is one of four sophomores who sit atop the JHU tackle charts.

Sophomore Sensations: A year ago, the Blue Jay offense was led primarily by players who are back this season. In fact, 4,122 of the Blue Jays' 4,158 yards of total offense and all 34 of JHU's offensive touchdowns last season were accumulated by players who returned this year.
Fast forward to 2009 and it's the defense being led by non-seniors - specifically, the Blue Jays are being led by members of the sophomore class.
A quick glance at the JHU tackle charts reveals that the top four tacklers and six of the top eight are all sophomores.
Sophomore Mike Milano currently leads the Blue Jays in tackles with 41 and is followed closely by classmate Tyler Brown, who ranks second with 33. Ryan Piatek (30) and Kale Sweeney (27) round out the top four tacklers on the team, while Sam Eagleson (23) and Mike Todisco (18) rank seventh and eighth, respectively.

In the Zone: Johns Hopkins has scored on 20-of-22 trips to the red zone this season and 14 of those 22 scores are touchdowns.

An Opportunistic Bunch: Johns Hopkins has forced 15 turnovers in five games this season and leads the Centennial Conference in turnover margin (+2.0/game). JHU's 10 INTs in five games are just three less than the Blue Jays had all of last season. JHU forced six turnovers (3 INTs/3 FR) in last week's win at Muhlenberg.

Seven's Heaven: Since the beginning of the 2003 season the Blue Jays are 48-15 when scoring more than seven points and 0-6 when they have been held to seven points or less.

It's All Academic: Johns Hopkins had three players named to the 2008 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Team. Current senior Steve Levinson (DL) was named to the first team, while classmates Mike Stoffel (OL) and Anthony Catanzano (OL) garnered second team honors.
Johns Hopkins has earned 29 CoSIDA Academic All-District selections since 2003. JHU's 29 selections in that time are the same number the other CC football-playing schools have combined for (29). Taking it back even farther, Johns Hopkins has earned 55 CoSIDA Academic All-District selections since 1991. During that time the other CC football-playing schools have combined for 59 selections. Johns Hopkins has had at least three players earn CoSIDA Academic All-District honors every year since 2001.

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