This post was written by Hatchet reporter Aaron Esparza.
With less than two minutes left in the game, No. 20 Johns Hopkins scored two consecutive goals to close the gap at 12-11. With seemingly all the momentum on their side, it looked as if the mens water polo team would let the game slip away.
As both teams traded close calls, Bogdan Petkovic, GW’s second leading scorer, restored order to the Smith Center when his skillful skip shot bounced off the water and slammed into the Blue Jay’s net.
“We could’ve very easily backed down and kind of fell apart, but we never did and we just kept responding,” head coach Scott Reed said.
Although the No. 19 Colonials (10-2, 3-1 A-10) never trailed the entire game, there was no question that this would be a tight battle from the beginning in the Colonials’ last home game of the season.
The Colonials started the game by showcasing their efficient offense, jumping out to an early 3-1 lead through just two minutes of play. The Blue Jays responded to this quick start with a timeout, that clearly re-focused them on combating GW’s dominant style of play.
In the second and third quarters, both teams went point for point, with only five points coming from GW and four from Johns Hopkins. To stop the Colonials from having their way on offense, the Blue Jays resorted to playing more physically, using offensive picks and constant fouls to try to take the Colonials out of their rhythm. This hostile style of play was not exclusively found in the pool, however, with Hopkins’ head coach Ted Bresnahan’s ejection after a red card in the third quarter.
After a well-executed breakaway goal in the final quarter, the Colonials took their largest lead of the game, 10-6. Despite the late Hopkins’ charge, GW looked to the packed Smith Center crowd for energy and regained its composure on defense, led by sophomore goalie Connor Dillon, who had eight saves in the game.
This big win comes after the Colonials broke into the top 20 national rankings, at No.19, for the first time since 2008. That ranking will likely go up after the rest of this weeks’ competition is complete.
Petkovic said the success “will demand for us to stay up there and keep it up.”
The Colonials move to 10-2 and 3-1 in the conference. Their next game, this Thursday, against Cal Baptist, marks the beginning of GW’s annual west coast trip.
