Oct. 28, 2009

Johns Hopkins-Juniata Football Notes in PDF Format

The Game: Johns Hopkins (5-2, 4-1 Centennial) returns from its bye week and heads to Juniata (1-7, 1-5 CC) for a matchup with the Eagles.

Last Week: Johns Hopkins was off last weekend. In its last action the Blue Jays fell from the ranks of the Centennial unbeatens as Ursinus escaped Homewood Field with a 16-14 win on October 17. Juniata picked up its first win of the 2009 season last week as the Eagles made 10 first-quarter points stand up in a 10-3 win at Moravian.

Poll Position: After four weeks of receiving votes in the AFCA Division III Coaches' Poll, Johns Hopkins fell out of the poll last week. Since the formation of the AFCA Poll in 1999, there have been 111 weekly polls. Johns Hopkins has been ranked in the top 25 for a total of 17 weeks and been listed as receiving votes 35 times for 52 total appearances in the 111 weekly polls.

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 (124) and coached (201) and enters this week's game with a career record of 124-74-3 (.624). He has more than twice as many wins as any other coach in school history (Ray Van Orman is second with 60 wins). With his next victory he will become just the second college football coach in state history to win 125 games at a school in Maryland.
Juniata is coached by Carmen Felus, who is in his first season as the head coach at Junita. Felus pickd up his first win at Juniata last week when the Eagles knocked off Moravian (10-3).

Gunning For 125 ...: A win against Juniata would be the 125th victory for Jim Margraff as the head coach at Johns Hopkins. In just 20 seasons, Margraff has accounted for 27% of the all-time victories in school history (124 of 458).

... and 100: A win against Juniata would be the 100th all-time victory for the Blue Jays in Centennial Conference play. JHU is currently 99-81-3 (,549). Dickinson (113) and F&M (101) are the only schools in the league with more conference wins than JHU.

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 Juniata will be the third of three straight road games Johns Hopkins will play that is the Homecoming game for its opponent (Muhlenberg - Dickinson - Juniata). The Blue Jays spoiled the festivities for both the Mules and Red Devils earlier in October.

Home(wood) Field Advantage: Johns Hopkins is 7-3 at Homewood Field since the start of the 2008 season.

More Home(wood) Field Advantage: JHU stands 40 games over .500 in home games under Jim Margraff. The Blue Jays are now 70-30-1 (.798) at Homewood under Margraff.

Road Warriors: The Blue Jays posted a 4-1 record on the road last season and JHU is 10-3 since the start of the 2007 season on the road. JHU is 32-12 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 was the first time Johns Hopkins 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. The Blue Jays had a chance to make it two last-minute wins this season, but a field goal attempt in the final 30 seconds was just wide against Ursinus.

Streaking: Since the start of the 2002 season the Blue Jays sport a 58-24 (.707) record. Taking it back farther the Blue Jays are 64-27 (.703) since the start of the 2001 season and 69-32 (.683) since the beginning of the 2000 season. The 69 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.

Kase Climbing: Senior running back Andrew Kase made it three straight 100-yard rushing games with a 122-yard effort against Ursinus in JHU's last outing. Kase has rushed for 834 yards (119.1/game) and 11 touchdowns and has nine receptions for 93 yards and one TD. He ranks first in the Centennial Conference in rushing, second in scoring (10.3 ppg) and fourth in all-purpose yards (132.4).
Kase continued his assault on the JHU and Centennial Conference record books against Ursinus as he became JHU's career leader in all-purpose yards (4,237) and tied the JHU record for overall career touchdowns (39). In addition, the 100-yard rushing game was the 21st of his career. That is already a JHU record and he moved into a tie for third in CC history in career 100-yard games with his effort against Ursinus. Kase pushed his career rushing total to 3,788, which is a JHU record and ranks eighth in league history. He also ranks fourth in career rushing yards by a running back at the collegiate level in the state of Maryland.

Tomlin Rolling: Sophomore quarterback Hewitt Tomlin continues to rank among the Centennial Conference passing leaders with three weeks remaining in the regular season.
Tomlin is currently 131-of-210 for 1,440 yards with 11 touchdowns against six interceptions on the year. He ranks fourth in the league in passing yards per game (205.7), pass efficiency (131.6) and completion percentage (.624) and fifth in TD passes.
Tomlin had his school-record-tying streak of 200-yard passing games snapped at four in the loss against Ursinus and ranks sixth in school history in career completions (285), seventh in passing yards (3,287), eighth in attempts (485) and 10th in touchdown passes (20). He is also tied for fourth with 10, 200-yard passing games to his credit. Tomlin is also 12-4 in his 16 career starts.

Choose Your Poison: A big part of the Johns Hopkins offense this season is a deep and talented receiving corps that counts three players with 22 or more receptions and seven different players with nine catches or more. Most impressively, the top five pass-catchers are all due to return next season.
Sophomore Sam Wernick currently leads the team in receptions (31) despite missing the first game of the season. Junior Dan Crowley counts 30 receptions for a team-high 466 yards and four touchdowns to his credit, while classmate Tucker Michels has 24 receptions for 339 yards and three scores. Michels enjoyed one of the finest games of his career at Dickinson as he had four receptions for a career-high 141 yards and one touchdown. His 68-yard touchdown reception on JHU's second play from scrimmage was the longest reception of his career.

Leading the Way: Johns Hopkins ranks fourth in the Centennial Conference in scoring offense (26.7), third in rushing offense (152.4), fifth in passing offense (207.0) and fourth in total offense (359.4). 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 Ed Rodger are the primary starters on the line, with senior John Fox and sophomore Doug Drummond also seeing action early in the season. The unit has allowed just two sacks on 217 pass attempts this season. The two sacks JHU has allowed are tied for the second-fewest in the nation.

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 three tacklers and five of the top seven are all sophomores.
Sophomore Mike Milano currently leads the Blue Jays in tackles with 52 and is followed closely by classmates Ryan Piatek (45) and Tyler Brown (44). Kale Sweeney (34) and Sam Eagleson (33) rank sixth and seventh, respectively, on the team in tackles.

In the Zone: Johns Hopkins has scored on 25-of-29 trips to the red zone this season (.862) and 18 of those 29 scores are touchdowns.

An Opportunistic Bunch: Johns Hopkins has forced 19 turnovers in seven games this season and ranks second in the Centennial Conference in turnover margin (+1.14/game). JHU's 13 INTs in seven games match the total the Blue Jays came up with last year. JHU forced two turnovers (1 INT, 1 FR) against Ursinus and the Blue Jays have forced at least two turnovers in all seven games this season. No other team in the Centennial has forced at least two turnovers in every game this season.

Seven's Heaven: Since the beginning of the 2003 season the Blue Jays are 49-16 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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