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Virginia Men's Lacrosse Falls to Syracuse 15-13
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March 2, 2002
Charlottesville, Va. – Senior Spencer Wright scored with 5:44 remaining to break a 13-all tie and give second-ranked Syracuse a wild 15-13 win over #5 Virginia this afternoon at Kl?ckner Stadium. The win is Syracuse’s seventh in the last eight meetings vs. Virginia as the Orangemen improve to 2-0 on the year. Virginia falls to 1-1.
Virginia spent much of the game playing catch-up in a contest that featured five ties, but couldn’t take the lead after a short-lived 5-2 advantage midway through the first quarter.
The visiting Orangemen jumped to a quick 2-0 lead in the game before the Cavaliers roared back with five unanswered goals in just over four minutes midway through the opening period. The Orangemen responded with three quick goals, including two by Josh Coffman, to knot the score at five.Virginia regained the lead at 6-5 on Brenndan Mohler’s first goal of the season with 3:59 remaining in the first quarter, but Syracuse’s Michael Powell tied the score by beating goalie Tillman Johnson with three seconds to play in the quarter.
Both offenses remained in high gear in the second period despite an increasingly heavy rain. Syracuse’s Michael Springer’s second goal of the game put the Orangemen ahead 35 seconds in the quarter, but freshman John Christmas took a Conor Gill feed in front to tie the game at seven. Syracuse scored three consecutive goals, including an extra-man tally by Powell, to build some breathing room for Syracuse at 10-7. Following an extra-man goal by Virginia’s A.J. Shannon, Coffman closed with his fourth goal of the half with 20 seconds left to give Syracuse an 11-8 halftime lead.
The third quarter did not feature nearly as much offense as in the first half, but goals by freshmen Joe Yevoli and Jared Little helped get Virginia to within two at 12-10 heading into the final 15 minutes.
Much like the first half, the fourth quarter was a wild affair. Springer scored in an extra-man situation to put SU ahead 13-10. But once again Virginia rallied to tie the score at 13 on two goals by Yevoli and one by Shannon. Yevoli tied the game at 13 with 6:23 remaining on a nifty behind-the-back shot that froze goalie Jay Pfeifer.
Syracuse won the ensuing face-off with Coffman picking up the loose ball and passing to Wright. Wright drove the right pipe and beat Johnson with a crank for what proved to be the eventual game-winner.
Virginia had several opportunities to tie the score in the final five minutes, aided primarily by Syracuse’s inability to clear the ball successfully. In the final quarter the Orangemen failed on nine of 12 clears.
The Cavaliers regained possession for the final time as Springer threw a pass out of bounds with 35 seconds on the clock. Virginia called timeout with 18 seconds left to set up a final shot attempt. Christmas took the ball on the ensuing restart and beat his defender, but his shot with 10 seconds left was wide. Syracuse called timeout after gaining possession as the shot carried out of bounds. Powell closed the scoring by corralling a long clearing pass from Solomon Bliss and scoring easily with three seconds left as Johnson was well out of the crease trying to create a turnover.
Freshman Joe Yevoli led the way once again for the Cavaliers with his second four-goal game in a row. Shannon scored twice and was the only other Cavalier with more than one goal. Conor Gill added three assists and moved into a three-way tie for eighth on the all-time ACC assists list with 114.
Powell led the way for the Orangemen with four goals and two assists. Coffman also scored four times, while Springer tallied three times. Goalie Jay Pfeifer recorded 15 saves.
Virginia returns to action next Saturday (March 9) against Princeton at 1:00 p.m. at Kl?ckner Stadium.
Syracuse 6-5-1-3-15
Virginia 6-2-2-3-13
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Shots
Syracuse 32
UVa 41
Clearing
Syracuse 15 of 32
UVa 29 of 38
Faceoffs
Syracuse 14
UVa 17
Ground balls
Syracuse 55
UVa 67
Penalties
Syracuse 4-2:30
UVa 5-3:00
Extra-Man Scoring
Syracuse 3 of 5
UVa 1 of 4
Saves
Syracuse-15 (Jay Pfeifer 15)
UVa-4 (Tillman Johnson 4)
Syracuse scoring
Goals-Josh Coffman 4, Michael Powell 4, Michael Springer 3, Brian Nee 2, Spencer Wright 2.
Assists-Powell 2, Solomon Bliss, Brett Walther, Wright.
UVa scoring
Goals-Joe Yevoli 4, A.J. Shannon 2, John Christmas, Conor Gill, Billy Glading, Jared Little, Brenndan Mohler, Chris Rotelli, Nick Russo.
Assists-C. Gill 3, Rotelli, Shannon.