Virginia Outlasts Maryland 10-9 in 7-Overtime Thriller
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, VAMidfielder Brian Carroll’s goal one minute into the seventh overtime lifted the top-ranked Virginia Cavaliers to a 10-9 come-from-behind win over Maryland in the longest game in NCAA men’s division I lacrosse history.
The win in their Atlantic Coast Conference opener is the Cavaliers’ 11th in a row to open the season. Maryland entered the game in first place in the conference but now is 2-1 in the league and 6-3 overall.
The OT winner is the third of Carroll’s career; he beat Syracuse and Johns Hopkins with extra-session goals last season and is the first player in school history with three winners in a career.
“I’ve had a few left-handed goals this year, all of them on the run,” Carroll said of his winning shot. “The alley was open. They had a guy standing there and he didn’t end up sliding, so I took the shot.”
While Carroll had an inkling of the historical nature of the game, Virginia head coach Dom Starsia wasn’t.
“It never occurred to me,” he said. “I’m probably too tired to consider the historical significance of all of this. It felt like it was a struggle offensively all day and I wasn’t sure that we were going to be able to manufacture the goal we needed to win.
“Frankly, we don’t call a timeout when we had one on that last possession and kind of left it for the players out there to make the play and win the game. So maybe taking it out of the hands of the coaches and leaving it in the kids’ hands is what we needed to do to finally get this one in the end.”
Virginia overcame a tremendous number of turnovers to rally from a 3-goal deficit in the final six minutes of regulation to force overtime. The Cavaliers had more turnovers than shots for the first three quarters of the game and ended up with 28 for the game, including six in the overtimes.
“The game was far enough way from us, but there was enough left for us to kind of catch up,” Starsia said. “I think we started to play a little bit in the last 15 minutes (of regulation), when it was very easy to see that maybe we were going home without this game.”
“I thought we were pretty much on top of it throughout the overtimes, although there was no magic in the air on offense throughout the day.”
Freshman Steele Stanwick started the Cavaliers on their late-game run with his fourth goal of the game at the 5:41 mark. Danny Glading scored 33 seconds later to draw UVa within one at 9-8. Carroll’s goal with four minutes and 39 seconds remaining forced the game into the extra sessions.
Maryland appeared to win the game nine seconds into the first overtime on Grant Catalino’s goal, but an inadvertent whistle by the officials negated the goal.
The Terrapins outshot Virginia 14-to-6 in the overtime periods, but Virginia goalie Adam Ghitelman consistently kept them from scoring. He finished with a career-high 22 saves, including six in overtime.
Maryland also had three extra-man opportunities in the overtime sessions, but was unable to capitalize on any. The Terps seemed to have an excellent chance late in the first overtime following a penalty on Ghitelman. Mark Wade came off the bench cold to replace Ghitelman and made a key save on a Dan Groot shot with just over three minutes to play in the second OT session.
“You take Mark Wade and put him on top of Adam Ghitelman’s performance and this is a game that we win because of our play in the goal. Clearly it was Adam’s coming out day today; Mark Wade is … really a positive influence on everything we do every single day … and for him to come in and make a big play at a key moment was terrific.”
Virginia plays North Carolina next Saturday in the first game of the Big City Classic tripleheader at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. The game is set to faceoff at noon and will be televised by ESPNU. The Tar Heels ended a 2-game losing streak this afternoon with a 10-9 overtime win over Johns Hopkins.
Maryland 2-0-6-1-0-0-0-0-0-0-09 record: 6-3
Virginia 1-2-2-4-0-0-0-0-0-0-110 record: 11-0
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Scoring (G-A)Md: Will Yeatman 2-3, Ryan Young 2-1, Travis Reed 2-0, Joe Cummings 1-0, Dan Groot 1-0, Bryn Holmes 1-0, Dam Burns 0-1, Grant Catalino 0-1. Va: Steele Stanwick 4-0, Brian Carroll 2-0, Danny Glading 1-4, Shamel Bratton 1-0, Steve Giannone 1-0, John Haldy 1-0, Garrett Billings 0-1, Matt Kelly 0-1.
Goalie SummaryMd: Brian Phipps 85 mins., 11 saves, 10 goals allowed. UVa: Adam Ghitelman 83:53 mins., 22 saves, 9 goals allowed; Mark Wade 1:07 mins., 1 sv., 0 GA.
Shots: Md52, Va37
Ground Balls: Md43, Va40
Clearing: Md30x34, Va27x34
Faceoffs: Md15, Va11
Penalties: Md4-3:00, Va5-4:00
EMO: Md0x5, Va0x3