The hurt of losing on Senior Day was a little more painful for Johns Hopkins senior linebacker Adam Winter.
Winter, who broke his right thumb in the Centennial Conference showdown, couldn?t hide his disappointment after a 19-11 loss to Franklin & Marshall in the Blue Jays? home finale at Homewood Field Saturday.
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“I was fired up. There are only a few seniors on the team, but we were ready to play this game,” Winter said of his 12 classmates. “It?s really disappointing, but we?ll come out strong against McDaniel.”
The Blue Jays (3-6 overall, 2-5 Centennial Conference) close out the season Nov. 10 at McDaniel (1-8, 1-6), which lost to Gettysburg, 38-14, Saturday.
Despite the broken thumb, Winter hopes to play.
He made a game-high 13 stops Saturday, but Franklin & Marshall (3-6, 3-4) out-gained Johns Hopkins 306-165. The Diplomats? 12-0 first quarter ? fueled by two lost fumbles from Hopkins starting quarterback Michael Murray ? completely deflated the Blue Jays.
“There were miscues all over the place. That was awful,” Hopkins coach Jim Margraff said. “That was about as poor as we?ve played here in 18 years. I thought we had a better second half, but we still made a lot of mistakes.”
The Blue Jays committed four turnovers, and without much of a passing game (9-for-20, 90 yards and one touchdown between two quarterbacks), did not find the end zone until the fourth quarter.
Sophomore Andrew Kase rushed for 111 yards on 28 carries, but saw extra Diplomat defenders in the box in the second half.
Then the passing game opened up, as freshman quarterback Max Islinger hit junior fullback Greg Chimera for a five-yard touchdown in the front right corner of the end zone with 6:28 remaining in the fourth quarter.
“I think when the passing game opened up, they realized their safeties were only seven or eight yards off the line,” Kase said. “When they?re that close, and they were man most of the game, it wasn?t hard to open it up a little bit.”
Islinger relieved Murray in the first quarter and went 8-for-18 for 79 yards.
But Diplomats quarterback Kyle Turner was 22-of-33 for 198 yards and two touchdowns and tailback Ryan Murray had 116 yards on 23 carries in a successful motion-based attack.
“They?re very efficient,” Margraff said. “They didn?t come up with many big plays, but they were very good at converting third-and-mediums.”
Margraff admitted the windy conditions played a factor. The gusts helped Hopkins get on the scoreboard when freshman kicker Alex Lachman hit a career-long 44-yard field goal with 9:01 left in the second quarter.
