Football destroys Rochester by 22 pts

In their first road trip of the year, the Johns Hopkins football team rolled past the Rochester Yellowjackets 28-6. The win marked the Jays' first ever game against Rochester and second win in a row, improving them to 2-0 on the season.

Once again, the Jays' defense stymied the opposition, allowing a sparse six points and 306 yards in total offense. Though Rochester was able to crush St. John Fisher 44-6, the Yellowjackets found a much less yielding defense in Hopkins. Leading the Jays with 12 and nine tackles, respectively, were junior linebacker Mike Little and senior linebacker Marc Della Pia.

Freshman defensive back Matt Campbell also forced and recovered a fumble in the game.

"We lost only about one or two starters from last year on defense," said Coach Jim Margraff, who just moved up to third place on the Centennial Conference all-time win list for coaches.

"We've also moved our defense to a 4-4 set in order to make better use of the personnel that we have," he said.

And the Jays certainly do have the personnel on defense to make a formidable opponent.

Senior defenseman Adam Seidman was recently named Centennial Conference Player-of-the-Week. And that is just the tip of the defense's iceburg. With players like sophomore linebacker Paul Longo playing well in the past few games, not to mention some additions to the defense in coaching this season, the Jays defense is not only strong but well rounded.

Though a few players have stepped up on defense, the team depends on all around strength on defense.

"That's the thing," said Margraff. "They're all playing well right now on defense."

The Jays have yet to allow a touchdown in their first two games and their red-zone defense has been near perfect. Three times, the Yellowjackets were inside the ten-yard line and they managed came a mere one field goal in the three attempts.

In the first two games, the defense has held the opposition to just three field goals with the offense scoring a combined total of 62 points.

Despite the Yellowjackets jumping ahead to an early 3-0 lead on a 31-yard field goal in the first quarter, the rest of the game belonged to the Jays' and senior runningback Scott Martorana.

Martorana, a First Team All-Centennial Conference pick last year and co-captain of the team this year, ran the ball in from 47-yards out in the first quarter to put the Jays ahead. Rochester was able to kick one more short field goal in the first quarter, but the rest of the game would be decidedly dismal for the Yellowjackets.

From that point on, Martorana and the Jays ran away with game. Early in the second quarter, Martorana punched in a six-yard touchdown and followed it with a 25-yard touchdown shortly after.

Martorana's three touchdowns and 134-yard performance led the Jays' offensive production in addition to propelling his own record book invasion.

With his three touchdowns, Martorana moves into a tie for second on the all-time JHU touchdown list and only three touchdowns away from moving into first place.

Having already gathered four touchdowns this season, it may not be long until Martorana moves his name up in the JHU football record books once again.

Martorana also moves himself into twelfth on the all-time rushing yards list with 1,349 career yards.

The only other tally in the game came just minutes after Martoran's third touchdown when Junior fullback Steve Stache plowed through for a one-yard touchdown. The touchdown followed a 49-yard pass play from senior quarterback Rob Heleniak to Martorana.

Heleniak was also strong, completing 13 of 27 passes for a total of 35 yards. Senior Zach Baylin led the Jays' receivers with four receptions and 56 yards.

Baylin's 56 yards makes him among only five players who have reached 1500 career receiving yards. Baylin currently has 1,521 career receiving yards.

"Little Zach Baylin has led the conference in receptions the past few years," said Margraff. "Heleniak has looked strong too."

The real issue for the Blue Jays is staying healthy. With a couple of outside linebackers, a back up quarterback and a running back injured, not to mention a host of other minor injuries, the Blue Jays are trying to keep from losing too many other players.

The loss marks the first loss of the season for the Yellowjackets and yet another 2-0 start for the Blue Jays. The 2-0 start is currently tops in the Centennial Conference.

The Blue Jays, having yet to be challenged by an opponent, should have an upcoming test in the form of the Bridgewater Eagles.

The Eagles are currently ranked No. 3 overall in the nation and come into Saturday's game with a nine-game regular season winning streak.

This is the highest ranked team that the Blue Jays have faced under the leadership of Coach Margraff. Bridgeport also won the last meeting between the two teams, 37-24.

"They're so quick in all areas," said Margraff. "The key for us is just to play sound fundamental football against Bridgeport. We're just trying to stay healthy basically; that's really the key."

The Blue Jays carry two routs worth of momentum into next Saturday's homecoming at Homewood Field and they hope that the defensive stinginess and running proficiency will continue against the quick and lethal Bridgeport Eagles.