Its not often you score 52 points, and not win, but that was the nature of the back-and-forth game played, with both teams playing lots of great running rugby, and it was a late Lewis Minikin penalty that saw the Ionians scrape the win.
Hoppers produced a much-improved performance and could be proud come full time, picking up two crucial bonus points.
The opening twenty minutes saw two tries for Ionians, with William Yates and Alan Hudson both getting on the end of well worked tries.
Hoppers responded in good fashion with two tries in four minutes. The first through Tyler Spence, who sprinted over after Sammy Russell broke through.
Freeman followed that up with another well worked try in the other corner, the ball travelled coast to coast, before Ree made an excellent offload to play him in.
Ionians scored two more before the half hour mark through Cam Burnhill, securing a bonus point early on. The first came as the ball travelled across the backline after their maul came close.
His second came after Mewburn produced a storming run before two quick passes saw him die into the corner.
Hoppers got one back through Freeman, who powered his way over after the ball travelled out wide from the maul.
And Spence secured a first half bonus point after picking out an Ionians pass, and sprinting over from 50 metres out.
Just three minutes into the second 40, Ionians had scored from close range after an early maul pushed them up to the line.
Almost immediately after, Hoppers got their fifth after powering over from close range.
Two tries for Ionians grew their lead, the first from Thomas Winch who was on the end of an excellent passing move, finished off nicely in the corner.
The second was an excellent solo score from Yates, who picked up his own clearance before sprinting over.
Izaak Gosling helped Hoppers respond immediately when he tumbled over after they quickly built up the pitch.
With thirteen minutes to go, Ionians went past the fifty-point mark after Minikin slipped past a missed tackle to score.
Ree scored two quick tries to give Hoppers the lead for the first time, the first after he dove on a Spence dink, the second after Hoppers made a great break, giving Ree so much space to score in.
But with three minutes to go, they were penalised for an offside, and Minikin cooly slotted his penalty to edge Ionians into a one point lead.
And despite building themselves up the pitch, with a potential chance for a drop goal, Hoppers couldn’t quite get a chance off, and after an entertaining affair, Hoppers came back with two well deserved points, but were so close to more.
Match report by Tom Kelly