When Patrick Kay’s feet hit the ground last Saturday, he threw up his arms and took a deep breath.

“At that point, I knew it was over,” said Kay, Johns Hopkins’ senior defensive end. “We won. It was over.”

On the game’s final play, the 6-foot-1, 270-pound Kay was able to push through the line and block Hampden-Sydney kicker T.C. Stevens’ 47-yard field-goal attempt to preserve a 17-16 victory.

It was the culmination of a thrilling game in Hampden-Sydney, Va. Johns Hopkins kicker Alex Lachman followed Greg Chimera’s 1-yard touchdown plunge with an extra point to give the Blue Jays their third lead of the day with 1:34 remaining.

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The defense just needed to stop the Tigers.

After Hampden-Sydney returned the kickoff to the Blue Jays’ 41-yard line, quarterback Corey Sedlar connected with Drew Smith for an 18-yard gain. Kay and Scott Meyers were able to stop Tigers running back Justin Curtis for a short loss on first down, and Sedlar mustered a three-yard pass to Smith on second. On third-and-8, Blue Jays linebacker Colin Wixted sacked Sedlar for a nine-yard loss, forcing Stevens to attempt a 47-yard field goal.

“That just got us all so fired up,” Blue Jays senior inside linebacker Adam Winter said of the sack. “We really had confidence. We knew we were going to block that kick.”

Kay powered his way through the line and deflected the ball as it sailed toward the uprights to secure the win.

“I was fortunate to be able to get a push in there and somehow get a hand on the ball,” Kay said.

But Blue Jays coach Jim Margraff believes it was the special team’s first blocked kick that made a second possible.

Sedlar hit Michael Brooks in the end zone on the Tigers’ first drive of the fourth quarter, but Meyers got a hand on the extra-point attempt to hold Johns Hopkins’ deficit to six points, 16-10.

“Scotty Meyers did such a great job, it looked like they made some adjustments to take care of him,” Margraff said. “Patrick took advantage of that. He made himself skinny and fit through.

It was great penetration. [The ball] hit him at the line of scrimmage. He was through the line and in the backfield.”

In his first start on defense since 2005, Kay finished the game with seven tackles. Last season, Margraff asked Kay, who had played on the defensive line during each of his first two seasons, to move to center because the team didn’t have a reliable player to snap the ball. However, after Johns Hopkins graduated four of their top defensive linemen this past spring, Margraff moved Kay to his original position.

The Blue Jays held Hampden-Sydney to 12 rushing yards on 27 carries.

“As far as running the ball, it was almost futile,” Margraff said. “That was a big question mark before the game, to see how our D-line would stand up.”

With Kay’s return, it’s no longer a question.

In an effort to put Johns Hopkins back on top of the Centennial Conference ˆ

where the Blue Jays were for five consecutive years before a 5-5 finish last season, Kay gained 20 pounds of muscle during the offseason.

He no longer resembles the player Margraff began recruiting when he saw the high school senior from Marietta, Ga., at a football camp at Princeton University.

“I just loved him,” Margraff said. “I think Princeton liked him, too. But at the time, he was slightly undersized for them. That’s exactly what we’re looking for: Great students who are basically I-AA players.”