OSU junior attackman Carter Brown (14) scored six goals in the Buckeyes’ 15-12 win against Johns Hopkins on March 5 at Ohio Stadium.  Credit: Courtesy of OSU athletics

OSU junior attackman Carter Brown (14) scored six goals in the Buckeyes’ 15-12 win against Johns Hopkins on March 5 at Ohio Stadium.
Credit: Courtesy of OSU athletics

For the first time ever, the Ohio State men’s lacrosse team defeated the nine-time NCAA Champions Johns Hopkins Blue Jays, 15-12, Sunday night at Ohio Stadium.

“Awesome,” was the first word senior David Planning could muster to describe his team’s performance.

“When you beat a team like that as a senior, at home, there’s no greater feeling in the world,” Planning said.

Hopkins (4-6, 1-1) struck first with two early goals, but that proved to be the Blue Jays’ largest lead of the game. OSU (9-3, 2-0) registered goals from five different players, but all signs pointed to junior attackman Carter Brown.

With Brown playing at the “X,” he found the back of the cage six separate times with five of those goals coming from behind-net wrap arounds.

“It starts with the guys up top beating their guys. If the defense slides and starts to rotate, that makes my job really easy. I just make gains and come hard across the goal,” Brown said.

But Carter was not the only Brown finding success on the field. For Johns Hopkins, junior Ryan Brown scored eight goals against the Buckeyes with one assist, giving him nine total points on the night.

The game was tied nine different times as the Buckeyes struggled to pull away. But OSU redshirt-sophomore goaltender Tom Carey registered 14 saves to lead the Buckeyes’ defense.

“The offense played great tonight. As a defense we didn’t play our best, but the offense had our back the whole game,” Carey said.

Coach Nick Myers agreed that the OSU defense wasn’t at its best, but said he was still happy about how his team played overall.

“Defensively, we knew we were going to have our hands full but I was proud of the way we fought for 60 minutes and ultimately came away with the victory,” Myers said.

The win provided a lift for the Buckeyes after they fell to the Blue Jays in triple overtime last season.

This time around, the OSU offense found its groove and scored more than 10 goals against Johns Hopkins for the first time in the program’s history.

“We’ve been battling all week practicing so hard, but really it all starts in the back and Carey played awesome back there. We had (senior midfielder) Chris May winning faceoffs which gave us the possession, offense was just playing really simple and fast,” Brown said.

Though OSU totalled 15 goals from five different players, Planning had arguably the highlight goal of the night at 13:06 in the second quarter. Sophomore attackman JT Blubaugh fed the outlet pass to Planning, who used a split dodge to beat two Hopkins defenders before rifling a shot to the back of the net.

But for Planning, the night was about his teammates and the Buckeyes winning their second game in the Big Ten.

“This is a whole team win, we had goals spread out throughout the entire team,” Planning said. “We are a team first and foremost. I’m so proud of what we have accomplished.”

With two conference games behind them, Myers said the Buckeyes have to focus on what’s ahead.

“For our men, the most important thing is to think about how to get better and get win number three next week. There will be a time to reflect on the season, but right now it’s time to get back, get our rest and improve as we head north for the weekend,” Myers said.

The Buckeyes are scheduled to take on the Michigan Wolverines on Sunday in Ann Arbor, Mich., at 2 p.m.