The Denison field hockey team scored twice inside the first six minutes and held on late for a 2-1 victory over Johns Hopkins University on Saturday afternoon in Granville.

The Big Red wasted no time getting on the board, scoring three minutes into the match. Less than a minute after first-year goalie Ellen Westfall made her first save of the game, Dension began to counterattack at the other end of the field. Sophomore Jen Durbin sent in a shot that was blocked by a Blue Jay defender. Durbin quickly regained possession and snuck a shot inside the left post to give DU a 1-0 lead.

Two minutes and 16 seconds later, senior Elsie Humes sent a pass into classmate Britta Marden who curled around her defender and slid a shot underneath goalie Greta Helvie and into the lower left corner to extend the lead to 2-0.

Over the final 30 minutes of the first half, Johns Hopkins earned three penalty corner opportunities and outshot the Big Red 6-2. Leslie MacManus came close to shrinking the deficit in the 12th minute off a short corner, but Westfall laid out and just got her stick on the ball to knock it wide of the cage.

Marden nearly picked up her second goal of the day in the 32nd minute when she got past the charging Helvie. However, a heads up play by Shannon Cosgrove stopped the ball from crossing the goal line.

Hopkins finally broke up the shutout bid in the 40th minute when Megan Ophel sent a through ball to Princess Sutherland who ripped a shot just inside the right post for her second goal of the year. Marden tried to answer roughly three minutes later, but another defensive save, this time by Shannon Parker, kept it a one-goal game.

Still trailing with less than two minutes to play, Johns Hopkins pulled their goalie to get an extra attacker on the field. Even with the additional offensive player, the Big Red defense held off the charge, regained possession and ran out the clock on their offensive side of the field.

The Denison goal scorers, Marden and Durbin, combined for five of the team's eight shots, while senior Allie Bacon had two and Humes attempted the other and dished out an assist. Westfall improved to 2-2 on the season after making two saves in 70 minutes of work.

Sutherland finished with a game-high six shots and the Blue Jays' lone goal. Helvie took the loss, allowing two goals in 68 minutes.

Denison improves to 2-2 on the year, while Johns Hopkins falls to 2-2. The Big Red returns to action on Thursday when they travel to Wittenberg. Game time is slated for 4:30 p.m. The Blue Jays will return to Piper Stadium tomorrow (Sunday) to take on Oberlin at 11 a.m.