Men's Lacrosse Posts 11-7 Win over Princeton

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March 13, 2005

Final Stats | Video Highlights

Charlottesville, Va. – Third-ranked Virginia used a four-goal run around halftime, while holding Princeton scoreless for more than 15 minutes, to break open a tight game and gain an 11-7 win over the eighth-ranked Tigers tonight before 2323 chilly fans at Klöckner Stadium.

With the win, the Cavaliers improve to 4-0 on the season, their best start in two years. They also remained unbeaten in 13 night games at Klöckner. Princeton fell for the second week in a row and is now 0-2 overall.

The teams battled through a scoreless first quarter with the homestanding Cavaliers controlling the flow of play. They outshot Princeton 11-0 in the period, but were unable to get one past goalie Dave Law who recorded five of his 10 saves in the opening 15 minutes.

The Tigers ended the scoring drought as freshman Bob Schneider scored the first goal of his career 45 seconds into the second quarter, but Virginia’s Matt Ward tied the score two minutes later. The Tigers regained the lead on Mike Gaudio’s first tally of the season. Princeton scored on its first two shots of the game against Cavalier netminder Kip Turner, the same as Syracuse did last week.

Junior midfielder Matt Poskay forged the second tie of the game at the 7:29 mark of the second quarter to start the Cavaliers on their decisive run. A short time later defenseman Ricky Smith scored a quick goal in transition to give UVa its first lead of the game. The Cavaliers got the fast break started after Princeton’s Scott Sowanick hit the pipe and the ball bounded to middie J.J. Morrissey. Morrissey worked the ball to defenseman Michael Culver who found Smith all alone at midfield. Smith raced uncovered into the offensive zone and fired a shot past Law for the first goal of his career. The goal proved to be the game winner. Sophomore midfielder Drew Thompson tallied his fifth goal of the year just before halftime as the Cavaliers took a 4-2 lead into the locker room.

John Christmas pushed the scoring run to four goals 19 seconds into the second half as the Cavaliers’ lead increased to 5-3. Christmas finished with a goal and two assists.

Princeton senior Jason Doneger ended the run with an extra-man goal off a nice pass from Peter Trombino at the 10:46 mark of the third quarter. Ward scored his second of the game three minutes later, his ninth straight multi-goal game. Sowanick answered with 1:26 remaining in the quarter with the first of his two goals to trim UVa’s lead to 6-4.

That was as close as the Tigers would get, though. Poskay scored his second goal of the game with 12 ticks left in the third quarter as the Cavaliers notched five of the game’s next six goals. During the offensive outburst Jared Little scored twice, while Kyle Dixon and freshman Ben Rubeor each scored once. Little’s second of the game, on a behind the back shot, with 7:31 to play pushed the UVa lead to 11-5. Schneider and Sowanick trimmed the deficit with goals in the final four minutes.

Jack deVilliers helped the Cavaliers consistently gain possession by winning 13 of 21 faceoffs. The Cavaliers also held a big advantage in ground balls (49-32) and held Princeton to just 23 shots. Turner made five saves, while playing the whole way for the second game in a row.

The Cavaliers return to action Tuesday (March 15) at home against Mount St. Marys at 7 pm.

Princeton    0-2-2-3--7
Virginia     0-4-3-4--11
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Scoring (G-A)–UVa: Matt Ward 2-2, Jared Little 2-0, Matt Poskay 2-0, John Christmas 1-2, Ben Rubeor 1-2, Kyle Dixon 1-1, Ricky Smith, 1-0, Drew Thompson 1-0, Michael Culver 0-1. PR: Bob Schneider 2-0, Scott Sowanick 2-0, Peter Trombino 1-2, Jason Doneger 1-0, Mike Gaudio 1-0, Whitney Hayes 0-1, Jim O’Brien 0-1.
Goalie Summary: UVa– Kip Turner 60 mins., 5 saves, 7 goals allowed. PR–Dave Law 60 mins., 10 saves, 11 goals allowed.
Shots: UVa–35, PR–23
Clearing: UVa–14×20, PR–15×18
Faceoffs: UVa–14, PR–8
Ground Balls: UVa–49, PR–32
Penalties: UVa–5-4:00, PR–2-1:30
EMO: UVa–0x1, PR–1×5