As the game headed into overtime, Brown coach Lars Tiffany and goalie Jordan Burke knew Johns Hopkins midfielder Brian Christopher was going to take the game-winning shot. And so did just about everybody else among the estimated crowd of 2,491 at Homewood Field on Saturday afternoon.
And just as he has done so many times this season, Christopher delivered, scoring 36 seconds into the four-minute sudden-death overtime as No. 8 seed Hopkins defeated a tough and stubborn Brown team, 12-11, in an opening-round NCAA Division I tournament game.
Christopher, a senior midfielder from Springfield, Pa., delivered a high, sizzling 15-yard shot over the shoulder of one of the game's best goalies in Burke, and into the corner as Hopkins (10-4) advanced to the quarterfinals for the 19th straight time.
Hopkins next plays the winner of Sunday's game between Villanova and No. 1 seed Virginia.
Christopher has been the Blue Jays' hero in three of the past four games, scoring three overtime winners.
The Bears (12-4) knew what was coming. Tiffany put two long poles on Christopher: Jake Westermann to stop him and Jake Hardy to slow him if Christopher got past Westermann. Christopher blew by both of them.
End of game.
"I saw the ball come out of his stick. It was the shot we wanted him to take," Burke said. "I thought I was all over it. It was a great shot."
It was a runner in which Christopher started just outside the restraining line and ran about 10 to 15 yards to his right at full speed before launching the shot.
"The last three weeks, it has been pretty lively," said Christopher, who finished with three goals. "To be honest, we really don't want to be in that position. I just had a good opportunity, and I thought I had some good spacing. When they came out with two poles, it was the first time we had seen that all game."
Christopher wasn't the only Hopkins standout. The Blue Jays won only 14 of 27 faceoffs, but Matt Dolente won the first four in the fourth period, as Hopkins scored the first three goals of the quarter to take a 10-7 lead. He also won the only faceoff in overtime.
In the final 10 minutes of the game, Hopkins goalie Michael Gvozden made two point-blank saves on shots from the top of the crease that might have cost the Blue Jays the game.
The Jays got five goals from junior attackman Chris Boland and two each from attackmen Kyle Wharton and Steven Boyle.
