Oct. 21, 2009

Box Score

BALTIMORE, MD - In a rematch of last year's NCAA Second Round Tournament game, 19th-ranked Johns Hopkins and 17th-ranked York battled to a scoreless draw Wednesday night at Homewood Field. The Blue Jays move to 12-2-1 on the season while the Spartans move to 11-1-4.

Both teams had some dangerous chances but four-save performances from the Blue Jays' Ravi Gill (Morganville, NJ/Marlboro) and the Spartans' Ryan Hock kept the game scoreless. In the 53rd minute, Kemal Nusphaic ripped a shot from about 18 yards out that just went over the cross bar. In the 85th minute, the Blue Jays nearly got the go ahead goal off the foot of junior Evan Kleinberg (South Orange, NJ/Columbia). Senior Max Venker (Oldsmar, FL/Palm Harbor University High) collected a pass from Gill and played a long ball over the Spartan defense. Kleinberg got a step on the defense and went one-on-one with Hock. He slipped a low shot past Hock that clipped the inside of the left post, rolled across the mouth of the goal and out of danger.

In the 88th minute, junior Chris Wilson (Bel Air, MD/John Carroll) was ejected from the game after earning his second yellow card of the match and forcing Hopkins to play a man down for the remainder of the match. That did not stop the Blue Jays from pressing in overtime. In the 108th minute, off a Kevin Hueber (High Bridge, NJ/Voorhees) free kick, Hock had to come up with his fourth save of the game to keep the match scoreless. Hueber's kick was headed by Venker, to junior Tony Gass (Durham, NH/Oyster River), who fired a low, hard shot that was knocked aside by Hock.

For the second consecutive meeting, the Blue Jays and the Spartans played to a scoreless draw. The two met in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2008 that was decided in penalty kicks. The Blue Jays prevailed, 4-3, in the shootout to advance to the Sweet 16. The tie extends Hopkins unbeaten streak to seven (6-0-1) and its home unbeaten streak to eight (7-0-1). York, which played a scoreless draw against Mary Washington on Saturday, was held scoreless for the second consecutive game for the first time since 1999 (September 10 & 11).

Hopkins returns to action on Saturday, October 24 as the Blue Jays travel to Lancaster, PA to take on Franklin & Marshall. The Centennial Conference tilt is set to begin at 7:00 pm.

HopkinsSports.com Men's Soccer

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