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March 29, 2003
Charlottesville, Va. – Maryland scored seven unanswered goals and held Virginia scoreless for more than 30 minutes to defeat the Cavaliers 8-7 Saturday afternoon at Kl?ckner Stadium in UVa’s ACC opener. The loss, Virginia’s second in a row by an 8-7 count, drops the Cavaliers to 5-2 overall this season. Maryland rebounded from a home loss to North Carolina last week to improve to 6-1 overall, 2-1 in the ACC.
Virginia delighted the crowd of 3,207 on a sunny day in the heart of Jefferson’s country by getting an extra man goal from John Christmas and Billy Glading’s first goal in two games to take a 2-0 lead against the one of the nation’s toughest defenses midway through the first quarter.
The seventh-ranked Terrapins used their tough defense and a patient offense to take the momentum from Virginia and keep it well into the fourth quarter. Junior Justin Smith got the Terrapins’ first goal to cut the UVa lead to 2-1 at the end of the first quarter.
Senior Mike Mollot knotted the score at two early in the second stanza as Maryland scored five unanswered goals in the quarter. Freshman Joe Walters tallied twice and Mollot got his second of the game on an extra-man opportunity 33 seconds before halftime to send the Terps to the locker room up 6-2.
Maryland pushed the run to seven goals on Jamie Daue’s third goal of the season, but the Cavaliers cut into the lead behind goals by Matt Ward and A.J. Shannon late in the third period. Ward’s goal, at the 4:14 mark of the third quarter, ended Virginia’s scoreless drought at 33:06.
Walters scored his third of the game less than two minutes into the final quarter to slow the Virginia rally somewhat and give the visitors an 8-4 lead.
Junior Justin Mullen notched a man-down goal off a nice feed from Chris Rotelli to trim the deficit to three at 8-5.
The teams traded possessions for nearly eight minutes without scoring.
Long stick middie Trey Whitty provided the big defensive play the Cavaliers needed by intercepting a pass by Dan LaMonica with 1:53 left. Whitty took the pass and hit Billy Glading in transition at midfield. Glading found Rotelli who hit an uncovered Christmas at the right pipe. Christmas easily beat goalie Dan McCormick with a behind-the-back shot with 1:39 to go as UVa inched to 8-6.
Maryland was called for illegal procedure on the faceoff, giving Virginia possession. The Cavaliers creeped closer 16 seconds later as Joe Yevoli took a feed from Rotelli and beat McCormick from the right side.
With the momentum clearly shifted, Jack deVilliers won the ensuing faceoff to give the Cavaliers a chance to tie. McCormick saved Christmas’ bid for the tie with 48 seconds left on the clock.
Maryland called timeout with 28 seconds to set last minute strategy. The effort failed as Mollot was called for withholding the ball from play two seconds later. Virginia’s possession was very nearly aborted as defenseman Ned Bowen’s pass into the offensive zone was intercepted by Lee Zink. Zink quickly lost possession after being stripped by Ward.
With the clock ticking, Christmas picked up the loose ball at the top of the box and tossed the ball in front of the Maryland cage, hoping he’d find a teammate, but McCormick was the only player there. He snared the pass and ran out the game’s final seven seconds to secure the win.
McCormick finished with 15 saves, including five in the final quarter, as Maryland held Virginia’s offense in check most of the game.
Christmas scored twice and was the only Cavalier with more than one goal. Rotelli didn’t score but he assisted on a career-high four goals. deVilliers was sensational at the faceoff X, winning 15 of 19 attempts, including eight of nine in the second half to help Virginia crawl back into the game.
The Cavaliers return to action next Saturday (April 5) against North Carolina at 1 pm at Kl?ckner Stadium.
Maryland travels to Navy that day for a noon start.
Maryland 1-5-1-1-8
Virginia 2-0-2-3-7
Att.-3,207
Shots: UM-31, UVa-43
Clearing: UM-20 of 26, UVa-18 of 26
Faceoffs: UM-4, UVa-15
Ground Balls: UM-38, UVa-51
Penalties: UM-4-3:00, UVa-6-4:00
Extra-man scoring: UM-1 of 6, UVa-1 of 4
Goalie summary: UM-Dan McCormick-60 mins, 15 saves, 7 goals allowed.
UVa- Tillman Johnson -60 mins, 12 saves, 8 goals allowed.
Maryland scoring (G-A)-Joe Walters 3-1, Mike Mollot 2-0, Justin Smith 1-1, Jamie Daue 1-0, Dan LaMonica 1-0, Matt Brock 0-2, Paul Gillette 0-1, Ryan Moran 0-1.
Virginia scoring (G-A)-John Christmas 2-0, Matt Ward 1-1, Billy Glading 1-0, Justin Mullen 1-0, A.J. Shannon 1-0, Joe Yevoli 1-0, Chris Rotelli 0-4, Kyle Dixon 0-2.