Rubeor's Seven Goals Sends Men's Lacrosse to a 13-9 Win Over Towson
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March 17, 2007
Charlottesville, Va. – Ben Rubeor scored a career-high seven goals to send Virginia past Towson 13-9 in men’s lacrosse action on an overcast afternoon at Klöckner Stadium. Rubeor’s seven goals are the most by a Cavalier since Doug Knight tied the school record with eight against Syracuse in 1996.
The win is Virginia’s sixth in a row, the longest winning streak in the nation, as the Cavaliers improve to 6-1. Towson falls to 2-2 this spring.
Rubeor, a junior attackman from Towson, Md., came into the game with a nation-leading 19 goals and sent seven past goalie Matt Antol, a high school teammate at Loyola Blakefield school.
“It certainly seemed like he made a big play whenever we needed it,” said Virginia head coach Dom Starsia. “He’s been our leader at the offensive end and we need him to play like that. To have any right to expect those kind of numbers in any game is probably a little extraordinary, but that’s who he is for us right now and has been all year.”
Rubeor opened the scoring the first minute when he intercepted a pass by defenseman Fred Lee intended for Antol and sent his first shot of the game into the back of the net.
Danny Glading scored his 15th goal of the season to give the Cavaliers a 2-0 lead less than three minutes in.
The Tigers clawed their way back and took a 3-2 lead as Bobby Griebe scored three consecutive goals in a four-minute and 28-second span of the first quarter. The lead, Towson’s first against Virginia in three years, lasted nearly eight minutes.
Rubeor used a little bit of basketball intuition by following his own shot that Antol saved but could not control to score his second goal of the game and force a second tie at the 12:48 mark of the second quarter.
A minute later Glading found his roommate Garrett Billings alone on the left side, eight yards from the goal. Billings easily beat Antol with a low shot as Virginia regained the lead at 4-3 at 11:47.
Jonathan Engelke scored an extra-man goal to pull Towson within one (5-4) less than nine minutes before halftime.
Virginia used goals from Rubeor and Steve Giannone to take a 7-4 advantage, but Towson answered with goals by Nick Williams and Engelke late in the second quarter to trim UVa’s lead to 7-6 at halftime.
Rubeor and Jack Riley gave Virginia a second three-goal cushion early in the second half. Billings’ second goal of the game moved the Cavalier lead to 10-6.
Once again the Tigers responded with a run of their own. Griebe ended the third quarter with his fourth goal of the game at the 4:11 mark. Defenseman Matthew Mehrer opened the fourth quarter with the first goal of his career with 8:33 to play as Towson cut the lead to 10-8.
Virginia closed out the final seven minutes by outscoring the Tigers 3-1 to gain the win.
Kip Turner made six saves in goal for the Cavaliers to remain undefeated at Klöckner in his career (18-0). Antol finished with a career-high 15 saves for Towson.
Adam Fassnacht continued his stellar faceoff play, winning 14 of 21 attempts. Both figures are career highs. He also snared a career-high eight ground balls.
The Cavaliers return to action next Saturday (March 24) when the travel to Baltimore to face Johns Hopkins at Homewood Field. Faceoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. The game is being televised on ESPNU.
No. 16 Towson 3-3-1-2–9 record: 2-2
No. 6 Virginia 2-5-3-3–13 record: 6-1
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Scoring (G-A)– T: Bobby Griebe 4-1, Jonathan Engelke 2-0, Nick Williams 1-3, Randall Cooper 1-1, Matthew Mehrer 1-1, Justin Schneider 0-1. V: Ben Rubeor 7-1, Garrett Billings 2-1, Danny Glading 1-2, Steve Giannone 1-1, George Huguely 1-1, Jack Riley 1-0, Tim Shaw 0-1.
Goalie Summary–T: Nick Antol 60 mins., 15 saves, 13 goals allowed. V: Kip Turner 60 mins., 6 saves, 9 goals allowed.
Shots: T–32, V–45
Ground Balls: T–40, V–46
Clearing: T–21X29, V–19X20
Faceoffs: T–11, V–15
Penalties: T–1-1:10, V–3-2:00
EMO: T–1×3, V–0x1