BALTIMORE -- Freshman attackman Matt Ward's last second shot flew inches wide of the right post, as No. 1 Virginia's second half comeback came up one goal short, and the Cavaliers fell to No. 4 Johns Hopkins, 8-7, at Homewood Field Saturday night.
The Blue Jays (4-1) kept Virginia (5-1) off the scoreboard for the first 30 minutes and led 5-0 at halftime. The Cavaliers mounted a strong third quarter comeback, scoring five times and cutting the deficit to two. But Johns Hopkins held Virginia to only a pair of fourth quarter goals and never relinquished the lead on its way to its third straight home victory.
The defeat was the Cavaliers' first this season, and the seven goals scored was a season-low. Virginia outshot the Blue Jays 42 to 32 but struggled to find the back of the net throughout the evening.
"Overall, I think we shot ourselves in the foot many times throughout the game," Virginia coach Dom Starsia said. "We made far too many mistakes."
Virginia trailed throughout the game, but pulled within one goal late in the fourth quarter when senior midfielder Chris Rotelli made his way around the Hopkins goal and netted an overhead running shot with 1:28 remaining to make the score 8-7.
Sophomore midfielder Jack deVilliers won the ensuing face-off to give the Cavaliers a chance to send the game into overtime, but Virginia lost the ball out of bounds with 22 seconds left.
Junior goalie Tillman Johnson got the ball back for the Cavaliers with only nine ticks on the clock and Virginia moved the ball up to Ward, whose 30-yard sidearm attempt just missed the mark.
"As bad as we played, we still got our chances," Rotelli said. "We were in the game the whole time."
The Hopkins defense, anchored by senior goalie Rob Scherr, slowed down the normally high-octane Virginia offense, which came into the match fourth in the nation with 13.8 goals per game. In addition to keeping Virginia off the board in the first half, Scherr stopped a career high 18 shots.
"Their kid in the cage was terrific," Starsia said. "We took some bad shots, but he was responsible in a big way for keeping us off the board in the first half."
The Blue Jays grabbed a quick lead, scoring two goals in the game's first three minutes, and netted five tallies in the first quarter. The second quarter was scoreless.
Ward put the Cavaliers on the board with 11:19 left in the third on an overhead dump into the right-hand corner of the net. Sophomore attackmen John Christmas and Joe Yevolli each had a pair of goals in the quarter, but the Blue Jays scored two goals of their own to hold onto the lead.
Down 7-5 entering fourth quarter play, the Cavaliers struck quickly to pull within one goal. Freshman attackman Joe Yevolli lofted a soft pass from the left side behind the cage into the middle of the box. Rotelli burst through the zone, snagged the feed at top speed and dumped the ball in the right corner of the net less than one minute into the quarter.
Hopkins went back up by two with 8:07 left on a low sidearm shot from senior midfielder Joe McDermott to score what proved to be the winning goal.
Christmas, Rotelli and Yevolli led the Cavaliers with two goals apiece. Yevolli also picked up two assists.
The victory moves Hopkins to 52-20-1 all-time against the Cavaliers. Virginia had taken four games in a row against the Blue Jays, including a quadruple overtime victory at Homewood in 2001 that was the longest game in each school's history.
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