MIDDLEBURY, Vt.—Johns Hopkins University scored a pair of goals in the final eight minutes of regulation and struck twice late in the second overtime to defeat No. 15 Babson College, 4-3, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday afternoon at South Street Field.
Babson, which had its 12-game unbeaten streak snapped, closes the year at 11-4-7 overall. Johns Hopkins, which has won four consecutive matches, improves to 13-4-4 overall and advances to face third-ranked Middlebury in Sunday's second round.
The loss spoiled a spectacular homecoming for senior
Louis Gazo (Colchester, Vt.), who scored twice and picked up an assist on first-year
Alexander Yablonovskiy's (Berkeley Heights, N.J.) goal in extra time for the Beavers. Junior
Matias Gutierrez (Coral Gables, Fla.) and sophomore
Joao Araujo (Boca Raton, Fla.) also registered assists, while junior goalkeeper
Walker White (Coral Gables, Fla.) made 10 saves in the loss.
Graduate student Ben Goodman (Savannah, Ga.), senior Francis Meyer (North Potomac, Md.), graduate student Max Edelstein (San Francisco, Calif.) and classmate Eli Carr (Fredericksburg, Md.) all scored for the Blue Jays, who got four saves from senior Drew Valsamedis (Wall Township, N.J.).
The Green and White jumped in front 1-0 in the 28th minute when Araujo played a long ball over the top of the Johns Hopkins defense that bounced once in the box before Gazo flicked a header over Valsamedis, who was charging off his line, and into the open net for his fourth goal of the year. He completed his brace in the 67th minute with a forceful header off a service from Gutierrez to make it 2-0.
Seemingly in control, the Blue Jays rallied to force overtime with a pair of goals just over two minutes apart. Sophomore Will Andrus (Fallston, Md.) drew multiple defenders carrying the ball toward the end line before cutting the ball back across the box to set up Goodman's easy finish from inside 10 yards to make it 2-1 in the 83rd minute. Meyer then tied it in the 85th minute, flicking graduate student Aidan Dunphy's (Florham Park, N.J.) free kick past White from just inside the penalty spot for his second goal of the year.
The Beavers regained the lead 5:51 into the first overtime when Yablonovskiy forced a giveaway and then put away a pass from Gazo for his fourth goal of the year. Babson was unable to see the game out though as Johns Hopkins pulled level on Edelstein's goal in the 108th minute following a scramble in the box and took its first lead when Carr drilled a half-volley inside the right post from 10 yards out after junior Will Sangpachatanarunk (Wexford, Pa.) headed down Edelstein's service from the left wing.
Johns Hopkins outshot Babson 27-15 over 110 minutes and attempted seven of the nine corner kicks in the game.
GAME NOTES
• Saturday's match was the first all-time between Babson and Johns Hopkins.
• Prior to Saturday, the Beavers had won 135 straight games when scoring three more goals going back to 1999.
• The Johns Hopkins' comeback snapped Babson's 25-game unbeaten streak when scoring at least two goals going back to the start of the 2021 campaign.
• Saturday's loss snapped an eight-game unbeaten streak away from home for the Green and White.
