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BALTIMORE, MD -- Johns Hopkins got three goals each from Stephen Peyser and Michael Kimmel and clamped down on the University of Delaware offense all day long as the Blue Hens’ dream season came to an end in an 8-3 loss in the NCAA men’s lacrosse semifinal setback Saturday afternoon at M&T Bank Stadium.

The No. 15 ranked Blue Hens (13-6), who were making their first-ever appearance in the national semifinals, had a seven-game win streak snapped and fell for the first time since mid-April. Delaware, the Colonial Athletic Association champions, was held to a season-low three goals and and had its lowest scoring output since a 13-3 setback to Hofstra during the 2005 season.

No. 5 ranked and third-seed Johns Hopkins (12-4) ran its winning streak to eight games and advanced to the NCAA championship game for the 17th time in its illustrious history. The Blue Jays, winners of eight NCAA titles, will face the winner of the Duke vs. Cornell semifinal game in the championship game Monday at 1 p.m. at M&T Bank Stadium.

“I thought our kids played hard for four quarters all year and today was no exception,” said 29th-year Delaware head coach Bob Shillinglaw, who led the Hens to the NCAA Tournament for just the fourth time in school history. “I thought both teams battled it out but their goalkeeper (Jesse Schwartzman) played exceptionally well and closed the door on us. Our guys were thinking twice about their shots. Obviously Hopkins has an outstanding defense.”

Delaware, which got single goals from Dan Deckelbaum, J.J. Moran, and Curtis Dickson, had entered the game ranked No. 4 in the nation in scoring at 12 goals per game and had scored 10 or more goals in 10 straight games.

The Blue Hens were held scoreless in the first quarter, snapping a streak of 32 straight quarters with a goal and trailed 2-1 at the half. Delaware’s leading scorer Adam Zuder-Havens (35 goals) was held scoreless and to only three shots on goal.

Johns Hopkins defeated the Hens for the sixth time without a loss all-time, including a 10-3 win in the last meeting in 1983 when the Blue Jays downed the Hens 10-3 in the NCAA quarterfinals.

Hopkins scored the first two goals of the game before the Hens finally got on the board on Dickson’s goal with 4:28 left before the half, snapping a scoreless streak of 25:32. The Blue Jays went up 3-1 on a goal by Kimmel just over two minutes into the third quarter, but Delaware cut the deficit to 3-2 when J.J. Moran scored off a feed from Jordan Hall with 9:28 left in the quarter.

But Delaware would never gain a share of the lead as Tom Duerr and Kimmel each scored goals in the final 50 seconds of the quarter and Peyser tallied another goal just 55 seconds into the final stanza to up the JHU lead to 6-2. Peyser and Kimmel each tacked on another goal in the final quarter to push the lead to 8-2 before Deckelbaum scored with 2:28 left for the Blue Hens.

“I thought we were doing a good job against an explosive offense and I felt comfortable being at 2-1 at the half,” said Shillinglaw, who led the Blue Hens to 13 wins, the second highest total in school history. “I thought we made the adjustments we needed to and I thought our offense was there, but we just didn’t get in sync.”

Hopkins outshot the Blue Hens by a narrow 40-37 margin with Schwartzman posting 10 saves. Delaware junior goalkeeper Tommy Scherr (at right) registered 11 saves in the loss.

“As they game went on, they really wore us down,” said Scherr. “We were playing a lot of defense in the first half and did a great job. But in the second half, we struggled a little bit on the ball and they were able to take advantage of it.”

Delaware All-American Alex Smith, the all-time NCAA leader in faceoffs won in a season and career, won just 7 of 15 shots, falling under 50 percent for the first time since last season, ending a streak of 19 straight games. Smith failed to win 50 percent or more of his faceoffs for just the eighth time in 69 career games.

“I’m proud to represent my school in the Final Four and be a member of this team,” said Smith, the most accomplished faceoff specialist in the history of the game after shattering NCAA records for faceoffs won in a season (311) and career (1,027) and groundballs in a career (553). “We lost this game, but just being here was such a great thing for our program and for the University of Delaware.”

Game Notes....the game was played before an NCAA semifinal record crowd of 52,004, the largest crowd that a University of Delaware team has ever played in front of, breaking the record of 37,625 by the football team vs. Temple at Veteran’s Stadium in 1974...Delaware also made NCAA Tournament appearances in 1984, 1999, and 2005, advancing to the quarterfinals in both 1984 and 1999...Hall ended his career by scoring a point in 31 straight games and finishing with career totals of 85 goals and 55 assists for 140 points, tied for 13th all-time at Delaware...Deckelbaum’s goal gave him 77 for his career and he finished with 97 career points...Scherr recorded 35 saves in three NCAA Tournament games...the Hens advanced to the semifinals with wins of 14-8 over defending national champion and No. 3 ranked Virginia in the first round and 10-6 over UMBC last week...Smith finished his career by winning 1,027 of 1,484 faceoffs, good for a winning percentage of 69.2 percent ...Dickson, who started the season as a backup midfielder, ended the year with 21 goals and scored at least one in the final nine games of the year...Delaware’s three goals were the lowest total for a team in the history of the NCAA semifinals, one less than Maryland’s four goals in 2005...the 11 combined goals in the game was the lowest in NCAA semifinal history, two less than the previous mark of 13 in last year’s Maryland vs. Massachusetts semifinal game.

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