If the Johns Hopkins football team was angry about dropping a tough overtime loss to Dickinson the week before, they showed it by trouncing the Franklin & Marshall Diplomats 41-0. The Blue Jays' defense allowed only 138 yards in offense while the Jays' offense exploded for a season high 511 yards and five touchdowns.
Reminiscent of the Dickinson game, the Jays jumped out to an early lead, but this time the Jays would have no talk of comeback. Just three and a half minutes into the game and on their first possession, the Jays scored their first touchdown, coming on a 27-yard run from senior running back Scott Martorana. The Jays continued scoring on their next drive in the first quarter when freshman running back Adam Cook ran a touchdown in from seven yards out making the first quarter score 14-0.
"We made a couple of mistakes," said head coach Jim Margraff. "On the third drive we threw an interception in the end zone; that's where we've been having trouble scoring, within the 25-yard line. But, the effort was there and that's the big thing that we needed."
The Diplomats would never recover. While the Jays offense was bolstering a large lead, the Jays defense was busy forcing six turnovers, holding the F&M running game to 73 yards and holding the F&M passing offense to less than 70 yards. The defense entered the game as the number one defense in the Centennial Conference and left the game in the same position. Not once did the Diplomats get within the Hopkins 30-yard line let alone the end zone.
And the Hopkins scoring continued. In the second quarter, the Jays' offense added two more rushing touchdowns. The first came from junior Kevin Johnson from two yards out and the second came from sophomore Kyle Miller from one yard out, upping the score to 28-0. The rushing game was on for the Jays, garnering four touchdowns and 305 yards by the half.
In the second half, the Jays added even more scoring, first on a 10-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Rob Heleniak to senior Zach Baylin and second on two field goals by senior kicker Matt Andrade, making the final score 41-0.
"We needed to gain some confidence in that game and we did," said Margraff. "The offense hadn't been scoring when getting chances, so it felt good to get a few touchdowns in."
The Jays' running game was the biggest story of the day. Cook ran 10 times for 107 yards and Martorana ran for 11 carries and 59 yards. All total the Hopkins rushing offense had four touchdowns and a total of 386 yards on the ground. Martorana's touchdown ties him on the all-time Hopkins career rushing touchdown list with 25 touchdowns for his career. He has one more game to break that mark against Western Maryland.
Even with the rushing game having a record game, the passing offense contributed as well for the Jays. Heleniak threw for 108 yards and was 12-of-16, including one touchdown and one interception on the day. Baylin added six receptions and 41 yards.
Hopkins goes on to play their last regular season and last conference game next week against one of the top ranked teams in the country in Western Maryland. Western Maryland has led the conference the entire season and will win the conference if Hopkins does not play spoiler in their last game.
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