BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- The Moravian University football squad dropped a 54-6 decision to nationally ranked Johns Hopkins University in Centennial Conference action at Rocco Calvo Field Saturday. 

How It Happened

• The Greyhounds received the opening kickoff and picked up first down and moved into Johns Hopkins territory before punting
• The Blue Jays would put together a 13-play, 92-yard drive after the punt to score the opening touchdown of the game with 7:26 left in the first quarter
• Moravian's next drive ended with a punt while Johns Hopkins would miss a 46-yard field goal attempt
• After the Hounds punted again, senior defensive back Jackson Buskirk intercepted a pass and returned it 24 yards.
• Moravian turned the miscue into a 25-yard field goal from junior kicker Trevor Yacuboski with 12:13 remaining in the second quarter as the Blue and Grey pulled within 7-3
• The Blue Jays answered with a touchdown to extend the lead to 14-3, and Johns Hopkins would score on a fumble return after a touchdown to go up 21-3 with 7:38 left in the first half
• Moravian drove down into the red zone and looked to have scored a touchdown, but it was nullified by a penalty. The Hounds would get points on the drive as Yacuboski split the uprights with a 28-yard field goal to make it a 21-6 contest with 3:25 before the intermission
• Johns Hopkins returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown, and would score once more before halftime to head to the locker room with a 35-6 lead
• All the scoring in the second half would from the Blue Jays including a field goal, a safety on a Moravian penalty in the endzone, another kickoff return for a score and a fumble return for a touchdown off of a muffed snap on a punt by Moravian

Inside the Numbers

• Johns Hopkins had a 448 to 237 edge in total offense as Moravian kept the Blue Jays nearly 180 yards below their season average of 623.7 entering action
• Senior quarterback Christopher Mills was 20-for-39 for 196 yards with a touchdown and his top target was senior wide receiver Trevor Cunningham, who caught eight passes for 97 yards
• Freshman wide receiver Jordan Lewis had six catches for 52 yards while senior wide receiver Nick Petros caught five passes for 39 yards and is now just 15 yards shy of becoming the second wide receiver in school history to 2,000 career receiving yards
• Senior wide receiver Cory Little has one catch for eight yards, and he returned two kickoffs for 51 yards
• Sophomore running back Isaac Cherry had 16 yards on five rushing attempts while senior running back Carrington Smith had 11 yards on 10 carries. Junior quarterback Brad Bryan contributed four yards on two attempts while junior running back Angelo Macera added one yard on three carries
• Senior linebacker Noah Breidinger contributed 16 yards on a fake punt for a first down, and he also made six tackles
• Senior defensive back Connor Lyon and junior defensive back Ethen Aquino each had 10 tackles to lead the Greyhounds' defense while freshman defensive back Chad Newhard and senior defensive back Romello Walters each made eight stops with Newhard adding a half a tackle for loss and Walters returning three kickoffs for 72 yards
• Buskirk finished with five tackles and a total of two passes defended including his interception in his first start of the season
• Junior Javi Espinal-Katz had Moravian's only sack of the afternoon
• Yacuboski made both of his field goal attempts in the contest and averaged 49.3 yards on four kickoffs and 35.0 yards on six punts in the game

Quotable from Head Coach Jeff Pukszyn

• "I thought the guys did a great job all week in practice, I thought they came out with a lot of effort, a lot of enthusiasm for each other. We really honed in and played each play. Each play that we had, we had success on and we got another one and we got another one. A couple of times we shot ourselves in the foot and had some penalties at crucial times unfortunately. It was certainly a battle against the very good team from Johns Hopkins. I'm proud of the way they fought, and they performed."
• "Jordan Lewis, it's great to see his progress and it really came through today. It's great for Jordan to see Trevor and Nick and Corey, and some of those guys who've been around and are a little bit more seasoned, so I think Jordan is learning from them and doing a really good job and the production showed today, that he's putting all week in practice so that's been great. Nick really did a good job today. Trevor had some key catches, and I think Chris distributed the ball well today without a doubt and sat in the pocket and took some took some hits but battled through it for majority of the game."
• "On both sides of the ball, the staff did great preparing the guys I think on defense. We really did a great job all week of talking about seeing a little and then helps you see a lot and that's what our guys did. Buskirk really played a good game, and I think Romello Walters had a great game. We rotated a lot guys up front again, some crucial tackles by Noah, Nico and then Nick at the linebacker spot so that was really, really good. Noah being RPP, something that we work on all we you know every week is some fake points and we thought we had a run today, based on what we saw all week and the timing was right. I gave it a go ahead if he felt like he had it and of course he did it with confidence and it paid off for us."
• "The other thing is that our kickoff return defense certainly hurt us as well as the fumbled punt. I take 100% responsibility for them as the head coach and got to do a better job of putting those guys in better positions."

Up Next for the Greyhounds

• Saturday, October 2 at Juniata College, 1:00 p.m.
• Saturday, October 16 vs. Dickinson College, 1:00 p.m.