(Posted October 9, 2007)

BALTIMORE, Md. - For about 55 minutes on Tuesday night, the Juniata College men's soccer team hung in against Johns Hopkins University, one of the top Division III programs in the country. Then the flood came - in more ways than one. A one hour, ten minute delay in the second half, due to heavy rain and lightning, gave way to a fired-up Blue Jay squad that emerged from the locker room and proceeded to score four goals in a little under eight minutes, on its way to a 7-1 win over the Eagles at Homewood Field in Baltimore. Johns Hopkins held a 2-1 at the break, after a hard-fought first half of play. Jordan McGowan (Millerstown, Pa./Greenwood) scored the lone Juniata goal in the 42nd minute, when his crossing attempt was grabbed and bobbled by Hopkins keeper Matt Mierley and fell into the Blue Jay goal. After the intermission, the 18th-ranked Blue Jays expanded their lead to 3-1 in the 49th minute on Ben McAbee's deflected shot of a Max Venker free kick. At 57:25, the skies opened up and the officials temporarily halted the match. According to Juniata head coach Dan Dubois, the rain was coming down so hard that it was impossible to see across the field. When play resumed over an hour later, the Blue Jays added to their lead with a goal from Venker in the 70th minute. Scott Bukowski expanded the Blue Jay advantage to 5-1 with a goal in the 72nd minute, followed by Nick Gauna's goal in the 75th minute, and another scoring strike by Bukowski in the 77th minute. "We played an excellent team in a really good game - for about 55 minutes,\" said Dubois. "That long break threw us off our game and we never quite recovered. It threw them off too - they looked a little wobbly for the first few minutes - but they recovered and we didn't.\" Junior Ted Sonneborn (Syracuse, N.Y./Manlius Pebble Hill) played all 90 minutes in the Juniata goal and was credited with nine saves. For Hopkins, Mierley finished the night with two saves. Johns Hopkins outshot Juniata 26-4, and had 12 corner kick opportunities to the Eagles' none. "We know we can play with the best; we did it today for 55 minutes,\" said Dubois. "We have four conference games remaining, and knowing we can play at this level will help us in those games.\" The Eagles return to action on Saturday when they host Landmark rival University of Scranton on Saturday, Oct. 13, as part of a doubleheader with the Juniata women's soccer team. The doubleheader will begin with the women's game at 1:00 p.m. -30-

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Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.