Release courtesy of Johns Hopkins Athletic Communications
SALEM, VA – There is an old saying in sports that to be the best you have to beat the best.
In the world of Division III women's soccer, the best has, for quite some time, been Messiah. Although the Johns Hopkins women's soccer team has pushed its regional rival to the north over the last two decades, the second-ranked Blue Jays entered Friday's NCAA Semifinal against the fifth-ranked Falcons looking for that signature win in the series.
Consider it found.
The Blue Jays jumped to a 2-0 lead, carried a 2-1 advantage into the final 20 minutes and then struck twice in a two-minute span late in the game to lock down the program's first appearance in the NCAA Championship game with a 4-1 victory.
After an opening that saw both teams work through the feeling-out process, the Blue Jays broke through in the 18th minute on the 20th goal of the season by graduate student Breukelen Woodard. Building from the back, the Blue Jays played it wide to freshman defender Lily Gaston, who lofted one into the area that bounced through the Messiah defense to Woodard, who headed it over Messiah 'keeper Ava Wert from six yards out to give the Jays the early one-goal lead.
The one-goal lead held for just under 19 minutes before the Blue Jays converted on a corner kick to double their lead. After Wert tipped a first corner offering from Kendall Dandridge over the end line, sophomore Katie Sullivan sent the ensuring attempt to the back post, where graduate student Rebecca Rosen got free and headed home her 14th of the season.
Any thought that the Falcons would go away was gone just under three minutes later as they scored in transition to slice the deficit in half. Sophomore Bella Touzeau collected a long pass down the wing and slipped inside her defender just outside the box and five yards north of the goal line; she then slipped a cross into the area that Becca Ritchie was able to get a foot on and direct to the far corner of the goal to get the Falcons on the board.
Both teams had other chances to strike before halftime. The best of those for the Blue Jays was a crossbar-finder by Kaleigh Gallagher from in tight, while Ritchie whistled one just wide off a cross in transition, but the 2-1 score carried into the break.
The Blue Jays had several chances early in the second half to push the margin to 3-1 with chances from Rachel Jackson, Sullivan and Woodard, but Jackson and Woodard's offerings went wide and Sullivan's 14-yard shot form the middle was easily handled by Wert.
Dangerous off the corner all season, it was from that spot that the Blue Jays got the breathing room they craved. Sullivan's left-footed attempt in the 74th minute bent hard as it drifted into the box, where a Messiah defender got a head on it along the goal line but couldn't keep it out as the Blue Jays went up 3-1.
Just under two minutes later it was Jackson who provided the insurance goal as a Dandridge shot that hit the cross bar was poked into an open net by Jackson to give the Blue Jays a 4-1 lead.
The Falcons pressed late but never created an advantage in the attacking third as the Blue Jay defense kept them away from goalie Emma Huntzinger down the stretch.
Johns Hopkins, which set a school record with its 22nd win of the season and extended its winning streak to 20 games with the victory (22-0-2), will take on the winner of the second semifinal between Case Western and Virginia Wesleyan in the national championship game on Sunday, December 4 (12 pm).
Notes: With her goal today, Woodard becomes the fourth player JHU to score 20 or more goals in a season and the first since Meg Van de Loo set a school record with 25 goals in 2016. In addition, her six goals in the NCAAs this season are the most by a Johns Hopkins player in a single tournament. The four goals the Blue Jays scored today are the most allowed by Messiah since September 12, 1998 when the Falcons dropped a 5-1 decision to Richard Stockton. JHU's 20-game winning streak is the longest active winning streak by a soccer team, men's or women's, in the NCAA.