Men's Lacrosse Defeats Towson 14-3
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March 19, 2005
Charlottesville, Va. – After a scoreless opening 15 minutes, the second-ranked Virginia men’s lacrosse team erupted for seven second quarter goals and defeated #13 Towson 14-3 this afternoon before 1879 fans at Klöckner Stadium. The win sets up a 1 vs. 2 match-up next Saturday as the Cavaliers travel to Baltimore to face top-ranked Johns Hopkins at 1 pm at Homewood Field.
With the win, the Cavaliers improve to 6-0 this season and are off to their best start since 1996. Towson falls to 4-2 overall this spring.
For the second time in three games, freshman Ben Rubeor came off the bench to give the Cavaliers a spark offensively. He was injured early in last Tuesday’s win over Mount St. Mary’s and did not start today, but made his presence felt quickly in the second period. He opened the scoring with back-to-back goals seven seconds apart to stake the Cavaliers to a 2-0 lead early in the quarter.
Rubeor’s lightning quick scores set a tone for the opening five minutes of the second stanza as the teams combined for seven goals after not scoring at all in the opening 15 minutes.
Junior midfielder Matt Poskay followed Rubeor with his 12th goal of the season 52 seconds later as the game went from a scoreless to tie to a 3-0 Virginia lead less than two-and-a-half minutes into the quarter.
Junior Kyle Fiat, who scored all three Towson goals, got the Tigers on the board at the 12:13 mark, but the Cavaliers answered quickly. Matt Ward notched the first of his five goals on the afternoon at the 11:47 mark and John Christmas took a pass from faceoff specialist Jack deVilliers on the ensuing faceoff to score six seconds later as UVa lead extended to 5-1. Poskay and Kyle Dixon added goals before halftime to give the Cavaliers a 7-1 lead after 30 minutes.
Ward scored his second goal at the 8:52 mark of the third quarter as he and Fiat traded goals twice during the period. The Cavaliers scored five more times in the final quarter with Ward getting two, freshman Ryan Kelly two and senior Brendan Gill one.
Sophomore Kip Turner was tremendous in goal for Virginia, finishing with 15 saves before giving way to Bud Petit and Doug Brody for the final 4:25.
deVilliers won 12 of 18 faceoffs, including seven of nine in the second quarter that helped Virginia score quickly and break the game open.
Virginia’s close defense of Michael Culver, Steve Holmes and Ricky Smith held three of Towson’s top-four scorers without a goal to highlight a strong overall effort by the longsticks. Culver paced the defensemen with five ground balls.
Senior Reed Sothoron made 16 saves for Towson before being replaced late by Matt Antol. Junior defenseman Ted Turnblacer snared a season-high 11 ground balls to lead all players. Towson opens its Colonial Athletic Association schedule next Saturday at Delaware at 7 pm.
Towson 0-1-2-0--3Virginia 0-7-2-5--14att--1879
Scoring (G-A)–UVa: Matt Ward 5-1, Ben Rubeor 2-1, Ryan Kelly 2-0, Matt Poskay 2-0, John Christmas 1-1, Brendan Gill 1-1, Kyle Dixon 1-0, J.J. Morrissey 0-2, Jack deVilliers 0-1, Drew Thompson 0-1. TOW: Kyle Fiat 3-0, Oliver Bacon 0-1, Jonathan Engelke 0-1, Bobby Griebe 0-1.
Goalie Summary: UVa: Kip Turner 55:35 mins., 15 saves, 3 goals allowed; Bud Petit 3:20 min., 1 save, 0 goals; Doug Brody 1:05 mins., 0 saves, 0 goals allowed. TOW: Reed Sothoron 55:35 mins., 16 saves, 12 goals allowed; Matt Antol 4:25 mins., 0 saves, 2 goals allowed.
Shots: UVa–44, TOW–29
Clearing: UVa–26×29, TOW–20×29
Faceoffs: UVa–13, TOW–8
Ground Balls: UVa–43, TOW–44
Penalties: UVa–10-7:30, TOW–5-3:30
EMO: UVa–0x5, TOW–0x10