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Last Saturday in Baltimore the Cavaliers rallied from a two-goal deficit to defeat Syracuse 14-13 in overtime on Brian Carroll’s goal with 1:29 remaining in the extra session. The game was a back-and-forth affair typical of the two teams and featured nine ties and five lead changes.
Virginia erased one two-goal deficit in the fourth quarter with back-to-back goals from Shamel Bratton and Ken Clausen eight seconds apart to tie the score at 11. The Cavaliers and Orange then traded goals before Will Barrow gave Virginia a 13-12 lead with 2:58 remaining. Syracuse’s Steven Brooks forced overtime with a tremendous goal with 28 seconds left.
The Orange won the overtime faceoff but were unable to score on their three shots, but the Cavaliers turned the ball over on their first possession. Syracuse gave the ball right back with a turnover of its own. Getting into a settled offense, the Cavaliers took very little time bringing an end to the contest as freshman Shamel Bratton hit Carroll with a perfect pass in front. Carroll turned and rifled a shot past goalie John Galloway from 10 yards out to hand Virginia its first overtime win since last season’s North Carolina contest.
“Even though we got down a couple of times late in the game, we showed a little spunk and came back,” said head coach Dom Starsia. “It’s certainly a quality win in the early part of the season. I feel like in general we are not playing our best lacrosse yet, but that is okay also.”
The team was helped with the return of senior All-American attackman Ben Rubeor, out since early in the preseason with a knee injury.
“Ben’s definitely the leader of the team,” said attackman Danny Glading. “He’s the motor that gets us all going. Watching him run all over the field is inspiring, so it was really important to have him out there with us in a game like this.
“He always handles pressure when it’s on him and he really calms down the offense and gets us into the flow of things better than when he’s not there.”
Rubeor finished with a goal and two assists. He now has 99 career goals and needs one to become only the 10th player in school history to score 100 in a career.
His next chance to join the Century Goal Club is Tuesday night when the Cavaliers host VMI at 7 pm at Klckner Stadium. Virginia has won all 14 previous match-ups with the Keydets, including a 20-0 win last season.
VMI gained a 15-4 win over Presbyterian the last time out and stand 1-3 this season. Middie Tim Moran’s eight goals lead the team by a wide margin. His line mate Jacob Weimer has notched four goals. Brett Leonard leads the attack with three goals, followed closely by Matt Harrison with two.
The quickturnaround is typical of the early season for the Cavaliers as Starsia and his staff attempt to find out who they are and knowing what they have to work on.
“This team knows what’s going and I feel like we’ve got leadership in the right spots,” said Starsia. “I’ll be disappointed if we don’t come back or if we don’t play hard tomorrow night.
“VMI is a veteran team and they have some weapons on the offensive end of the field. If you’re going to get better (throughout the season), then we’ve got to get better (tomorrow night). What you don’t what to have happen is you don’t want to have the game you just played affect the game you’re going to play.
“I thought even just from the attitude todaythe meetings, the lift, the running we were certainly on top of things.”