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CHARLOTTESVILLE, VATop-ranked Virginia scored on three of its first four shots to take command early and defeat Towson 11-2 in a steady rain before 2389 fans at Klckner Stadium. The win is the Cavaliers’ ninth in a row over the Tigers dating back to 2001 and the eighth time in the last nine meetings they have held the Tiger to fewer than 10 goals.
Virginia’s record improves to 9-0 this season; this is the third time in the last four years the Cavaliers have started 6-0 or better. Towson suffered its third loss in a row to fall to 1-4 this spring.
“It was a good win for us,” said Virginia head coach Dom Starsia. “It was one of those games that was a little different kind of test. Under these conditions today against a team that was determined to take the air out and play more slowly, it required us to be patient and posed and to just keep working and I thought we did that for the most part.”
Towson played at a very deliberate pace on offense and took a season-low 19 shots, while failing to score in six-on-six situations; both Tiger goals came on extra man. Towson also committed 32 turnovers, nearly double its most coming into the game. Virginia’s defense did not allow a goal for the final 43 minutes and 22 seconds of the game.
“I thought we played good defense throughout the day,” said Starsia. “This was a team offensively that doesn’t play to our strengths. We probably would wish that you would jump down in the foxhole with us and start to duke it out with us; they didn’t want to do that. Clearly they wanted to hold the ball. They were going to be more dangerous without the ball and it required us to be smart and patient on defense, to be disciplined, and I thought that we did that throughout the day.”
Midfielder Shamel Bratton led the team in scoring for the second time in three games with three goals and an assist, while freshman attackman Steele Stanwick had three goals for his fourth multi-goal game in a row. Stanwick entered the game leading all freshmen in goals and total points.
“We hit some shots we had to,” said Starsia. “I thought Shamel was around the goal and was very good throughout. Steele continues to look for those opportunities. He’s a very smart lacrosse player. He may not be our first option but we need everybody to be able to step up like that so it makes us a more dangerous team when we get scoring from different guys.”
The Cavaliers took only 27 shots and shot 40.7 percent. The 27 shots are the fewest they’ve taken in a game since shooting just 21 times in a 17-2 loss to Duke four years ago. Virginia also did an excellent job of taking care of the ball with just 10 turnovers in the first three quarters of play.
Stanwick opened the scoring for Virginia by taking a pass in front from Bratton and sending a short shot past Rob Wheeler at the 10:36 mark. The shot was only the second of the game for the Cavaliers. He scored again on Virginia’s next possession with just under seven minutes elapsed. Twenty seconds later Bratton went to his right hand for his first goal of the game. Gavin Gill scored for the fourth game in a row to add to Virginia’s lead with 3:03 remaining in the opening period.
In the second period Towson won four of five faceoffs and made Virginia pay for its two penalties. Pat Britton scored Towson’s first goal at the 13:51 mark of the second quarter following a pushing penalty by Steve Giannone. The Tigers won the ensuing faceoff and got another extra-man opportunity when Chad Gaudet was penalized for holding. Bill McCutcheon followed Britton’s goal 29 seconds later as Towson trimmed Virginia’s lead to 4-2.
“I thought the game kind of got away from us a little bit in the second quarter,” said Starsia. “I was really glad to see us come out of the locker room in the third quarter and kind of reestablish ourselves. I thought we made pretty good decisions throughout the day.”
Bratton scored the final two goals of the half to send Virginia to the locker room with a 6-2 lead at the break.
Giannone scored back-to-back goals eight minutes apart in the third quarter as UVa’s lead grew to 8-2 with 5:40 to play in the third quarter. Stanwick notched his third of the game with just over three minutes to play in the quarter. Garrett Billings closed the third quarter scoring by knocking home a loose ball with 1.3 seconds left in the quarter for his only goal of the game.
Danny Glading closed the scoring halfway through the final quarter as Starsia turned the game over to his reserves for the final seven minutes.
With 99 career goals, Glading will have his next opportunity to become the 12th player in school history to score 100 in a career next Saturday (March 21) when the Cavaliers travel to Baltimore to face Johns Hopkins at Homewood Field at 8 pm. The game is being televised by ESPNU. The Blue Jays lost to Syracuse today 14-11 and are 3-3 overall this season.
Towson 0-2-0-02 record: 1-4
Virginia 4-2-4-111 record: 9-0
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Scoring (G-A) TU: Pat Britton 1-0, Bill McCutcheon 1-0, Brock Armour 0-1, Randall Cooper 0-1. UVa: Shamel Bratton 3-1, Steele Stanwick 3-0, Steve Giannone 2-0, Danny Glading 1-1, Garrett Billings 1-0, Gavin Gill 1-0, John Haldy 0-2.
Goalie Summary TU: Rob Wheeler 52:43 mins., 10 saves, 11 goals allowed; Andrew Wascavage 7:17, 0 svs., 0 GA. UVa: Adam Ghitelman 53:35 mins., 5 saves, 2 goals allowed; Mark Wade 6:25, 0 svs., 0 GA.
Shots: TU19, UVa 27
Ground Balls: TU40, UVa 39
Clearing: TU16x25, UVa 19×25
Faceoffs: TU12, UVa 5
Penalties: TU3-2:00, UVa 2-1:00
EMO: TU2x2, UVa 0x2