Men's soccer defeats Dickinson 2 - 1 in final game to claim eighth title
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The Jays finished their regular season with a 5-1 road-thrashing of conference rival Washington College. They then defeated Swarthmore 1-0 in their first and only other match of the tournament. With the win over Dickinson, the Jays improved to 15-3-2 on the season and won their eighth Centennial Conference title and their fifth since 2001, when the champion was decided by a tournament for the first time.
The scoring began in the 15th minute of the match when a Dickinson junior midfielder scored a beautiful long-distance goal on a shot from 25 yards. He was unassisted on the goal as well, claiming the ball and taking it himself for the score.
The Jays were quick to respond, as a free kick by sophomore defender and co-captain Corey Adams was sent into the box, and after being batted around by Dickinson freshman goalkeeper Cody Hickok, was deposited in the back of the net by senior midfielder John Scheuch for his second goal of the tournament. He was the lone goal-scorer in the previous tilt with Swarthmore. His goal in the 22nd minute on this match tied the Jays and Devils at 1-1, which would remain the score going into halftime.
The tie was broken soon after the second half began. In the game's 58th minute, a foul inside the box resulted in a penalty kick for the Jays. Senior midfielder Max Venker put away the shot for his fourth goal of the season.
Despite outshooting the Jays 17-11, Dickinson failed to put any more shots past senior keeper Ravi Gill, who had five saves on the day. Hickok matched this total with five of his own in the loss. Corner kicks and fouls were about equal as well, with a 10-7 advantage in fouls going to Dickinson and both teams having two corners. Dickinson did have three yellow cards in the game to none by the Jays, a telling statistic as the Devils were not able to play as aggressively as they would have preferred while trailing in fear of losing players.
The win marks the eighth time Johns Hopkins has won the Centennial Conference title, more than any other school in the conference. Muhlenberg is second with five titles. The Jays' five Centennial Conference Tournament championships is also a conference record. The Jays are now 10-3-3 all time in tournament play, including a 5-2-0 record in championship games. The Class of 2010 also has the distinction of being only the second class in conference history to win three titles in four years, the only other being Muhlenberg from 1994-97.
The conference title gets the Jays a berth in the NCAA Division III tournament, where they will face Misericordia on the 14th in Salisbury, Md. Dickinson also qualified and will face fellow Centennial Conference foe Franklin & Marshall in the first round.
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