BALTIMORE, MD  – Neither Johns Hopkins nor Susquehanna charges admission to its home football games.  After the last three years, maybe the schools should reconsider.
 
For the third consecutive meeting between the Blue Jays and River Hawks, the game was decided in the final minute with Saturday's game going to Susquehanna, 28-27, after SU went 75 yards in 11 plays and got an 11-yard touchdown pass from Michael Ruisch to Frank Depaola with eight seconds remaining.
 
The Ruisch-to-Depaola touchdown capped a furious fourth-quarter comeback for the River Hawks, who pieced together touchdown drives of 77, 99 and 75 yards to rally from a 24-7 deficit in the final 12 minutes.
 
The Blue Jays, who enter the game ranked seventh in the nation by D3football.com, led 21-7 at the half and, after a scoreless third quarter, pushed the lead to 17 at 24-7 when Mike Eberle capped a seven-play, 67-yard drive with a 27-yard field goal with 12:19 on the fourth-quarter clock.
 
The River Hawks, who had jumped to a 7-0 lead less than three minutes into the game but hadn't scored since, jump-started their comeback with a three-play, 77-yard drive that Ruisch finished off with a 45-yard touchdown pass to Mikah Christian that sliced the deficit to 24-14.
 
After Hopkins' Kyle Battles pinned the River Hawks at their own one-yard line with a 37-yard punt on Hopkins' next drive, Ruisch and Susquehanna went 99 yards on 10 plays and pulled within three on a two-yard run by Xavier Briggs-De Vore.  Susquehanna was forced to convert just one third-down on the drive and Ruisch caught a 27-yard pass himself on a trick play to set up the short touchdown run.

Johns Hopkins pushed the lead back to six at 27-21 on its ensuing possession.  A 37-yard kickoff return by Harrison Wellmann set the Blue Jays up at their own 42 and Hopkins moved 46 yards in nine plays before the drive stalled at the Susquehanna 12.  Eberle then added a 30-yard field goal with exactly two minutes remaining – as it turned out, that was eight seconds too many as Ruisch completed the comeback with his touchdown pass to Depaola with those eight ticks still on the clock.
 
The early 7-0 Susquehanna lead came on the strength of a six-play, 65-yard drive that Da'Avian Ellington polished off with an 11-yard run on an option play.
 
Johns Hopkins scored the next 21 points in the first half to take the 21-7 halftime lead.  A 14-play, 75-yard drive that took just less than seven minutes answered Susquehanna's game-opening score with senior quarterback David Tammaro racing in from nine yards out to even things up at 7-7.
 
That score held until midway through the second quarter, when the Blue Jays struck for 14 points in less than two minutes.  A 26-yard touchdown pass from Tammaro to Wellmann midway through the period was followed by a 45-yard interception return for a touchdown by junior linebacker Ryan Weed.
 
The Blue Jays had a golden opportunity to make it a three-score game late in the second quarter after a failed fake punt by the River Hawks gave Hopkins possession at the SU 12-yard line with just under two minutes remaining in the first half.  But the Susquehanna defense came up with a crucial stop on fourth-and-two at the four-yard line and the Blue Jays carried the 21-7 lead into halftime.
 
The 14-point margin held until early in the fourth quarter, when Eberle's 27-yard field goal ignited the wild final 12:19.
 
Tammaro was 32-of-53 for 370 yards with one touchdown and added the rushing touchdown as well.  Ryan Hubley tied his career highs with 12 receptions for 161 yards and totaled 202 all-purpose yards for the Blue Jays.  Nick Seidel posted nine tackles to lead the way defensively for Johns Hopkins, which also got seven tackles and the interception return for a touchdown from Weed.
 
Ruisch was 25-of-42 for 287 yards and two scores with Depaola (8-95-1) and Christian (4-88-1) his two favorite targets on the day.  Ellington and Briggs-DeVore both rushed for 62 yards and one touchdown and Craig Roumes had 11 tackles, including three that went for losses.
 
Johns Hopkins will return to action on Friday, September 20 when the Blue Jays host Moravian (6:30 pm) in another Centennial Conference game at Homewood Field.
 
Notes:  Hopkins had topped Susquehanna on a touchdown with 24 seconds left in 2017 (38-34) and missed a field goal with 24 seconds left in the fourth quarter of last season's game at SU (37-35) • The 300-yard passing game is the ninth of Tammaro's career, which ties him with Jonathan Germano for second on JHU's career list •  The Blue Jay defense had two interceptions and now has six in two games • The interception return for a touchdown by Weed was the first for Johns Hopkins since Macauley Kilbane took one back 34 yards for a score against Randolph-Macon in the 2018 season opener.