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Men's Lacrosse Downs Denver 9-6
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April 18, 2005
Charlottesville, Va. – Virginia scored five of the game’s last six goals to turn a one-goal deficit into a 9-6 win over the Denver Pioneers Sunday night at Klöckner Stadium. The Cavaliers remain unbeaten in home night games at Klöckner Stadium with their 15 consecutive win.
Both teams were coming off road losses yesterday, with the Pioneers having the worst of it by having to travel south from New Haven, Conn., last night following an overtime loss to Yale. They fall to 6-4 this spring. The Cavaliers, who lost to Denver 9-7 last season, improve to 9-2 overall this season.
The contest featured four ties and three lead changes in a game in which the biggest lead was the final three-goal margin.
Denver scored quickly on its first possession following a UVa turnover as senior attackman Matt Brown scored an extra-man goal with 2:19 elapsed.
Virginia junior Matt Ward forced the game’s first tie six minutes later by scoring for the 16th consecutive game. Despite several chances neither team could find the back of the net for the rest of the first period.
Freshman Ben Rubeor scored a fast break goal following a nice pass in front from long stick midfielder Rob Bateman to put the Cavaliers ahead for the first time by a 2-1 count. Midfielder Drew Thompson scored his first goal in seven games to push UVa’s lead to 3-1. The Cavaliers had an excellent chance to extend the lead to 4-1 following a slashing penalty on defenseman Bart Sullivan, but Ward’s shot 20 seconds into the extra-man hit the crossbar and bounded directly to defenseman Andrew MacDonnell. MacDonnell fed Ryan Zordani just past the midline. Zordani found Brown all alone on the crease. Brown easily beat goalie Kip Turner for the man-down goal with just over six minutes remaining before halftime. The Cavaliers compounded their problems with a slashing penalty on defenseman Michael Culver on the play.
Geoff Snider won the ensuing faceoff, one of only five wins for the Pioneers in the game. On the extra-man via Culver’s penalty, the Pioneers forced another tie as Zordani scored off a nice feed from Brown for Denver’s second goal in 31 seconds.
For the second consecutive time Denver won the faceoff, the only wins of the half, and regained the lead following Brett Koll’s goal 4:59 before the break. Neither team scored the rest of the half as Denver carried a 4-3 lead into the locker room.
The second half opened with a flurry as Virginia’s Kyle Dixon sent a laser past goalie Jeb Hollingsworth just over four minutes into the third quarter for the game’s third tie (4-4).
The back-and-forth action continued as Denver regained the lead 18 seconds later as Brandon Barcus got his fourth goal of the season off a Scott Davidson assist.
Senior midfielder Hunter Kass ignited the decisive Virginia rally by scoring his fourth goal of the year to knot the score at 5-all at the 9:32 mark of the third period. Senior co-captain Jack deVilliers won the succeeding faceoff, one of his 14 wins in the contest. A slashing call against Denver’s MacDonnell gave the Cavaliers another extra-man opportunity and they put it to good use as Ward scored easily on a Rubeor assist for UVa’s second goal in less than a minute.
The Cavaliers kept the pressure up offensively and used a good ride by the attack to set up their third consecutive goal. A Rubeor shot was blocked out front with Sullivan coming up with the ball. An aggressive Cavalier ride forced him to throw an errant pass that was picked off at the midline by Kyle Dixon. Dixon spotted Brendan Gill on the crease, who made a quick toss to Matt Poskay for the redirect past Hollingsworth as UVa’s lead grew to 7-5 at the end of the third quarter.
Poskay found himself in the right place at the right time less than three minutes into the fourth quarter by shoveling a loose ball into the goal, his 20th of the season.
Zordani scored with 5:14 remaining to end the Virginia run and mark his third consecutive multi-goal game. The Pioneers could get no closer, however, as Poskay notched his third of the game with 4:18 on the clock to seal the win for Virginia.
deVilliers was brilliant for the Cavaliers, winning 14 of 19 faceoffs. He also shared the team lead with Turner with seven ground balls.
The Cavaliers have this coming weekend off and return to action in the annual ACC Tournament in Baltimore. They are the second seed and face third-seeded Maryland in a semifinal contest on Friday, April 29. The game follows the Duke/North Carolina game and is expected to start at approximately 8:30 pm.
Denver returns to action this Friday (April 22) with an important conference contest against Ohio State.
#15 Denver 1-3-1-1--6 record: 6-4
#3 Virginia 1-2-4-2--9 record: 9-2
att--980
Scoring (G-A)–UVa: Matt Poskay 3-0, Matt Ward 2-1, Ben Rubeor 1-2, Drew Thompson 1-1, Kyle Dixon 1-0, Hunter Kass 1-0, Rob Bateman 0-1, John Christmas 0-1, Brendan Gill 0-1, Jared Little 0-1. DEN: Matt Brown 2-1, Ryan Zordani 2-1, Brett Koll 1-1, Brandon Barcus 1-0, Scott Davidson 0-2, Darren Sasaki-Scanlon 0-1.
Goalie Summary: UVa: Kip Turner 60 mins., 11 saves, 6 goals allowed. DEN: Jeb Hollingsworth 60 mins., 15 saves, 9 goals allowed.
Shots: UVa–48, DEN–30
Ground Balls: UVa–49, DEN–40
Clearing: UVa–20×24, DEN–20×29
Faceoffs: UVa–14, DEN–5
Penalties: UVa–3-2:00, DEN–8-7:00
EMO: UVa–1×8, DEN–2×3