Game Notes | Jays Open B1G Play at Rutgers 3/21/24

The Game
•  Johns Hopkins (5-3, 0-0 B1G) opens Big Ten play as the Blue Jays head north to Rutgers (6-2, 0-0 B1G).  The game will air live on BTN (4:30 pm).

When Last We Saw Them
•  Johns Hopkins slipped to 5-3 with it second straight one-goal loss as the Blue Jays fell to Navy, 10-9, in overtime last Friday night.
• Rutgers capped the non-conference portion of its 2024 schedule with a 10-9 win over UMass in a game played on Long Island last Saturday.

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 1,021-373-15 (.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 15 in the nation in both major national polls as the Blue Jays are 13th in the USILA Coaches Poll and 11th in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll this week.
• Rutgers is also ranked in the top 20 in both polls as the Scarlet Knights check in at 17th in the USILA Coaches Poll and 18th in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll.

Poll Notes of Interest
• Including this week’s poll, the USILA has issued 538 polls since the debut poll in 1973.  Johns Hopkins has appeared in the top 20 in 518 of those 538 polls and has been ranked in the top 10 in 439 of the 538.
• 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.

Series History
• Johns Hopkins and Rutgers will be meeting for the 46th time this week.  The series dates to a 13-0 Johns Hopkins victory in 1920 and the Blue Jays are 36-9 against the Scarlet Knights.
• A complete look at the series history can be found on page 16.

On This Date
• This week’s game will be the 12th all-time for Johns Hopkins on March 24.  The Blue Jays are 6-5 all-time in games played on this date.
• In their last game played on March 24 in 2018, the Blue Jays rallied from a seven-goal deficit (9-2) in the third quarter to stun Virginia, 15-13.

Offensive Notes of Interest
• Since the start of the 2022 season, the Blue Jays are 22-5 when they score 12 or more goals.
• In 104 full quarters since the start of the 2023 season (does not include overtime periods), the Blue Jays have scored two or more goals in 83 quarters and four or more in 46 quarters.
• This season, in 32 full quarters (does not include overtime periods), the Blue Jays have scored two or more goals in 27 quarters and four or more in 15 quarters.
• Johns Hopkins is averaging 12.5 goals per game this season (28th in the nation) with at least 11 goals scored in seven of eight games thus far.
• In eight games, the Blue Jays have gotten goals from 15 different players and 19 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).

38 Straight For Degnon
•  Graduate student attackman Garrett Degnon will carry a school-record 38-game goal-scoring streak into this week’s game against Rutgers after he scored three goals in the game last week against Navy.  The streak is currently tied for the longest active streak in the nation.
• During his 38-game goal-scoring run, Degnon has scored 100 goals and has 31 multi-goal games and 24 games with 3+ goals to his credit.
• Degnon’s 38-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 38-game goal-scoring run for Degnon and the 37-game runs for Brown and Riordan are the only three streaks of 30+ games in Johns Hopkins history.
Strength of Schedule
• The Blue Jays’ 13 regular season opponents are currently a combined 67-28 (.705), which ranks as the second-highest cumulative opponent winning percentage in the nation (does not include results against Johns Hopkins).
• Using this week’s USILA Poll as a gauge, the Blue Jays will play nine games against teams ranked in the top 20 in the nation.  The nine include Virginia (4th), Syracuse (T5th), Denver (T5th), Penn State (7th), Maryland (8th), Georgetown (10th), North Carolina (16th), Rutgers (17th) and Michigan (20th).  Towson, Navy and Ohio State are also listed as receiving votes.

Causing Trouble
• In eight games thus far, the Blue Jays have 68 caused turnovers to their credit (8.5/game) with 10 coming in the 13-5 win against Towson, nine in the 11-9 win at Georgetown, 12 against Loyola and 11 at Virginia.  The 12 CTs against Loyola are tied for the second-most in program history, while the 11 at UVA marked the 22nd 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 30th in the nation – and third in the Big Ten – with its 8.5 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 seven opponents scoreless for a period of 10 minutes or longer a total of 14 times.  Seven of those 14 streaks have been 12+ minutes in length.
• In the last seven games, the opposition has gone scoreless for a stretch of 10 minutes or longer 13 times with four of those coming against Towson and two each against Georgetown, Loyola and North Carolina.
• Dating back to the start of the 2023 season, the Blue Jays have held their 26 opponents scoreless for a period of at least 10 minutes 38 different times – 29 of those have come in the last 19 games.
• This season, in 32 full quarters (does not include overtime periods), the Blue Jays have allowed two or less goals in 20 quarters and four or more in just six 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 19-1 under head coach Peter Milliman and defensive coordinator Jamison Koesterer when holding the opposition to 10 goals or less.

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