March 22, 2009

Box Score

BALTIMORE, MD - Two years ago, the Virginia men's lacrosse team came to Homewood Field and slipped past host Johns Hopkins 7-5. On Saturday night in front of a crowd of 5,475, the Cavaliers outscored the Blue Jays 7-5 - in the first quarter; and then the game got interesting. When it was all said and done, top-ranked Virginia escaped Homewood Field with a 16-15 victory that included a 7-1 run by the Cavaliers, a 6-1 run by the Blue Jays, and a frantic final two minutes.

Virginia's Garrett Billings scored all four of his goals and added an assist during the 7-1 Virginia run that turned a 5-5 tie late in the first quarter into a 12-6 lead late in the second. Freshman Steele Stanwick ignited the spree with back-to-back goals in a 33-second span late in the first quarter, the second coming with just four seconds remaining in the period when he took a cross-field pass from Shamel Bratton in a scramble situation and scored from a ridiculous angle.

Billings scored twice in the first 69 seconds of the second quarter to make it 9-5, before a Chris Boland goal for Johns Hopkins temporarily halted the run. Max Pomper added a goal 10 seconds after Boland's tally after the Blue Jays lost the ensuing faceoff on a procedure call and Billings fired home two more goals over the next six-and-half minutes to give the Cavaliers what most in the crowd probably throught was a comfortable 12-6 lead with just over three minutes remaining in the first half.

The Blue Jays sliced the deficit to 12-8 before the half as senior Brian Christopher dodged from behind the goal and side-armed a shot past Adam Ghitelman and Boland worked from behind the goal and beat Ghitelman while falling to the ground with 1:09 left in the opening 30 minutes.

With the Cavaliers scoring 12 times on just 22 first-half shots and senior Chad Gaudet having his way on faceoffs in the first half (Virginia won 17-of-21 before intermission), few in the crowd saw Hopkins' third-quarter explosion coming, but what was once a six-goal deficit turned into a one-goal Blue Jay lead in a stunning 15 minutes.

Kyle Wharton swept in from the side and whipped a 12-yarder past Ghitelman less than a minute into the third quarter and an extra-man goal by Christopher followed 80 seconds later. The Blue Jays drew within one with just over 11 minutes remaining in the third quarter when junior Michael Kimmel found Steven Boyle in front and Boyle slipped home a five-yard shot from his knees to make it 12-11.

An unassisted goal by John Haldy, who used stutter step on an alley dodge to create separation from his defender and then beat JHU goalie Michael Gvozden low to the far post, gave the Cavaliers a two-goal advantage midway through the quarter, but the Blue Jays scored four times in the final 3:25 with only a Steven Giannone goal for Virginia mixed in during that time to give Hopkins an improbable 15-14 lead entering the fourth quarter.

Boland ignited the quarter-ending run for the Blue Jays when he scooped up a loose ball in front of the goal and shoveled a shot past a defenseless Ghitelmen from four yards out with 3:25 on the clock. Giannone's goal game 56 seconds later as Billings worked through a pick behind the goal and slipped a pass to Giannone on the crease and he easily beat Gvozden from the doorstep.

After fighting their way back for the first 14 minutes of the third quarter, the Blue Jays needed just 40 seconds to turn a 14-12 deficit into a 15-14 lead.

Senior Mark Bryan dodged from behind the goal, beat his defender just behind the goal line and a slide never came as he walked in front and fired home his third goal of the season. Boland completed his six-goal effort on the ensuing faceoff as Matt Dolente cleanly won the faceoff and found Boland on the crease, where he turned and fired home the game-tying goal. When Christopher polished off his four-goal effort with seven seconds remaining in the period, the Blue Jays had come all the way back to take the 15-14 lead. If only the game was 45 minutes long.

Virginia isn't 10-0 by accident and the Cavaliers needed just under five minutes, 4:59 to be exact, to take the lead back for good. After the teams combined to score between eight and 12 goals in each of the first three quarters, only two shots found the back of the net in the fourth quarter and both were by Virginia.

Billings found Bratton 10 yards in front and Bratton had time and room to fire his second goal of the game into the far corner and Glading gave Virginia the 16-15 lead with 10:01 remaining when Billings again found the right man as Glading had time and room to step and fire home his second of the night.

While the scoring was down in the fourth quarter, the pace was frantic. Hopkins fired five shots at Ghitelman and he came up with three point-blank saves to protect the lead. Both teams turned the ball over seven times in the period, including two by Johns Hopkins in the Virginia zone in the final 1:50. When Boyle's pass in front in the final seconds failed to connect the loose ball rolled harmlessly towards the edge of the restraining line as time expired.

The frantic finish was fitting for a game that saw 12 first-quarter goals on 19 shots. Five different Cavaliers found the net in the first 7:37, but Hopkins stood toe-to-toe with the consensus number-one ranked team in the nation as Boland got his night started with a pair of first-quarter goals and Boyle and Wharton scored back-to-back goals to turn a 5-3 deficit into a 5-5 tie with 2:30 remaining in the opening period.

Wharton's goal set the stage for Stanwick's two first-quarter tallies that gave Virginia the 7-5 lead that quickly swelled to 12-6. As it turned out, the excitement was just getting started when the first quarter ended.

In a game full of offensive stars, Billings led Virginia with eight points on four goals and four assists. Glading added the two goals and three assists, Bratton had two goals and two assists and Stanwick added a hat trick for the Cavaliers, who outshot the Blue Jays, 42-31, won the ground ball war, 40-25, and took 22-of-34 faceoffs. Ghitelman posted nine saves, including the three crucial fourth-quarter stops as Virginia held the Blue Jays scoreless in the final 15 minutes. The scoreless quarter was the first for Johns Hopkins since the first quarter of the game vs. North Carolina last season - a streak of 66 straight quarters with at least one goal.

Boland's six goals and eight points were both career highs. In fact, he entered the game with career totals of six goals and six assists. His eight points are the most by a Johns Hopkins player since Kyle Barrie had nine against Navy on March 19, 2003. Christopher doubled his previous career-high for goals in a game with four and his five-point showing was also a personal best. Wharton (2g, 1a) and Boyle (2g) also had multi-point games for the Blue Jays, who had won five of their previous six games against teams ranked number one in the nation at the time of the game.

#1 Virginia (10-0) 7-5-2-2/16<><>#9 Johns Hopkins (3-3) 5-3-7-0/15

Goals: V: Billlings-4, Stanwick-3, Glading-2, S. Bratton-2, Giannone-2, Carroll, Pomper, Haldy. J: Boland-6, Christopher-4, Whrton-2, Boyle-2, Bryan. Assists: V: Billings-4, Glading-3, S. Bratton-2, Carroll-2, Giannone, Huguely. J: Boland-2, Kimmel-2, Christopher, Dolente, Spaulding, Wharton. Saves: V: Ghitelman-9. J: Gvozden-8. Shots: V-42. J-31. EMO: V: 0-for-1. J: 2-for-3. Attendance: 5,475.

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