BALTIMORE, Md. --- The Moravian College football team dropped a 37-7 decision to No. 14 Johns Hopkins University in Centennial Conference action Saturday at Homewood Field in Baltimore.
The Greyhounds offense picked up 273 yards on 59 plays with freshman quarterback Doug Erney completing 12-of-19 passes for 107 yards and a touchdown and running for 57 yards on 14 attempts. Junior running back Eli Redmond led the Moravian rushing attack with 72 yards on 18 carries to move into a tie for 17th in school history with 1,293 career yards while freshman running back Tavion George had 30 yards on five carries.
Freshman wide receiver Ricky Tate caught a team-high five passes for 41 yards for the Blue and Grey while senior wide receiver Aaron Hudson had four receptions for 53 yards to move within four catches of 100 for his career. Senior tight end Aaron Brown and freshman wide receiver Nick Petros each caught one pass for six yards with Brown's being a touchdown while senior wide receiver Kyle Ferryman also had one reception. Petros also punted eight times for an average of 35.6 yards.
Senior defensive back Justice Anderson paced the Moravian defense with 12 tackles and a pass break-up while freshman defensive back Jackson Buskirk made 11 stops. Junior defensive back Nick Zambelli and linebacker Steve Ewald both made 10 tackles with Zambelli adding an interception and two passes defended and Ewald making a half a tackle for loss.
Sophomore defensive back Tim Valentine contributed six tackles and a pass break-up while senior defensive lineman Vinny Caporrino made six stops with a sack, a tackle for loss and a forced fumble. Sophomore linebacker Joseph Milano and junior linebacker Dallas Owen both had five tackles with Owen making a team-leading one and a half tackles for loss.
"This team fought hard to today, and I am proud of their effort," stated Head Coach Jeff Pukszyn. "We had some opportunities that we didn't capitalize on and you have to take advantage of those plays against a team like JHU. We will learn from our mistakes and continue to make progress."
The Blue Jays opened the scoring with a three-yard touchdown run by sophomore quarterback David Tammaro with 1:09 left in the first quarter, and John Hopkins added a 39-yard field goal by senior Jamie Sullivan nine seconds into the second quarter to take a 10-0 lead.
Moravian would get on the scoreboard with 5:50 left in the first half when Erney connected on a 6-yard touchdown pass to Brown, which finished off a 14-play, 78-yard drive. Junior Jon Miller connected on the extra-point to cut the deficit to 10-7.
Johns Hopkins added a touchdown pass by Tammaro and a scoring run by senior running back Ryan Cary late in the half, and Sullivan connected on a 22-yard field goal as time expired to send the Blue Jays to the locker room with a 27-7 lead.
Moravian nearly cut into the lead early in the second half after receiving the opening kickoff after the intermission. Erney led the offense down the field, and on a keeper from the 14-yard line, he bounced the run to the far sideline where he was hit just shy of the goal line and fumbled through the end zone for a Johns Hopkins touchback.
The Greyhounds would get the ball right back when Caporrino stripped Tammaro on a sack with junior defensive lineman Nick Tone recovering the ball at the JHU 16-yard line. Tone also had a sack and three total tackles on the afternoon. However, Moravian turned the ball back over on a fumble by George on the next play. The Blue Jays would drive the length of the field and score on a touchdown run by Cary for a 34-7 lead with 4:36 left in the third quarter. Johns Hopkins finished the scoring with a field goal by Sullivan late in the fourth quarter.
Moravian is slated to return to action on Saturday, September 23 when the Greyhounds will host Ursinus College in a Centennial Conference game kicking off at 1:00 p.m. at Rocco Calvo Field as the Hounds celebrate Homecoming.
Photo courtesy of Johns Hopkins University Athletic Communications.
