Cavaliers Rout Villanova 18-6 in NCAA First Round

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, VABrian Carroll scored a career-high five goals and Danny Glading added four to power Virginia past Villanova 18-6 in the first round of the NCAA Championship this afternoon at Klckner Stadium.

With the win, the Cavaliers improve to 14-2 overall this season and will meet Johns Hopkins in the quarterfinals next Sunday (May 17) in Annapolis, Md.

Villanova, the Colonial Athletic Association champions, was making its first NCAA Championships appearance. The Wildcats end their season with an 11-6 overall record.

Chad Gaudet won 12 of 15 faceoffs in the first half as the Cavaliers dominated possession throughout the first two quarters. For the game Virginia won 17 of 27 faceoffs, including 16 of 21 in the first three quarters. The Virginia defense was outstanding as well and did not give up a goal for more than 51 minutes of play; the Cavaliers scored the first 18 goals of the game.

“(Faceoffs were) the key, said Virginia head coach Dom Starsia. “That was pivotal. They’ve been pretty good facing off and against a team that came in here intending to play at a little bit more deliberate pace if they were going to have their way, it was important that we get the ball early and control the ball and keep the pressure on them. As soon as they fell behind by three, four, five goals, it’s so much harder to play slower … that was paramount.”

The Cavaliers started slowly and missed their first three shots of the game before catching fire five minutes into the contest. John Haldy notched his first goal in four games by scoring off a Virginia miss at the 10:39 mark. Haldy’s score started the Cavaliers on a scoring spree that saw them score on seven of eight shots over a five and a half minute span.

Glading tallied the next two goals for Virginia and assisted on the next two, as Virginia’s lead quickly grew to 5-0 midway through the first quarter. Steele Stanwick benefited from Glading’s first assist and Rhamel Bratton the second.

Carroll scored his first of the game from 12 yards out and added his second on an extra-man opportunity late in the quarter. Shamel Bratton sandwiched his only goal of the game between Carroll’s two strikes. Haldy ended the first quarter scoring with his second of the period as Virginia held a 9-0 lead after 15 minutes of action.

Carroll tied his career high of three goals early in the second period to push Virginia’s lead to double digits at 10-0.

After taking just three shots in the first quarter, the visiting Wildcats didn’t have their first sustained offensive possession until after Carroll opened the second quarter scoring. They maintained possession for nearly two minutes before losing the ball on a turnover without attempting a shot. For the game Villanova took 27 shots, including 15 in the final quarter.

Stanwick scored twice and Garrett Billings and Haldy once as Virginia took a 15-0 lead to the locker room at halftime. The Cavaliers needed just 31 shots to score the 15 goals and committed just six turnovers in the half.

Adam Ghitelman started in goal for the Cavaliers and made four saves before being replaced by Mark Wade early in the third quarter; Wade finished with a career-high five saves.

Glading opened the second half scoring by taking a nice feed from Gaudet who won the opening faceoff and finding the back of the next for his first goal since the first quarter. Carroll tallied his fifth just over two minutes later. Glading then ended the quarter with his fourth goal of the game with 7.9 seconds remaining. His goal ended up being Virginia’s last as the Cavaliers packed in 18 goals in just over 40 minutes of play.

With Virginia substituting its entire line-up in the fourth quarter, the Wildcats were able to get on the scoreboard. Tim Driscoll, the team’s leading scorer, scored the Wildcats’ first goal with 8:45 left to play and scored another just over a minute later. Matthew Fritts, the team’s second-leading scorer, scored his only goal of the game midway through the final period. Tim Langan, Jr., scored back-to-back goals for Villanova, while Michael Arvan closed the scoring with his second goal of the year.

Virginia thoroughly controlled play in the first 45 minutes, outshooting Villanova 38-12, winning 16 of 21 faceoffs and gathering 40 ground balls to the Wildcats’ 20 in the first three quarters.

“Clearly we were able to defend them early, we were on our toes defensively and it just seemed like we could get a good shot every time that we worked for it and exercised a little patience at the offensive end,” said Starsia. “And it seemed like that was what we were in the mood for most of the day. I don’t think we took three or four bad shots the entire day and we made pretty good shots against a pretty good goalie.”

Villanova 0-0-0-66 record: 11-6
Virginia 9-6-3-018 record: 14-2
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Scoring (G-A) VILL: Tim Driscoll 2-0, Tim Langan, Jr. 2-0, Michael Arvan 1-1, Matthew Fritts 1-0, Mike Brennan 0-1, Chris MacDonald 0-1. UVa: Brian Carroll 5-0, Danny Glading 4-2, Steele Stanwick 3-2, John Haldy 3-0, Shamel Bratton 1-2, Rhamel Bratton 1-1, Garrett Billings 1-0, Chad Gaudet 0-1, Steve Giannone 0-1, Gavin Gill 0-1, George Huguely 0-1

Goalie Summary VILL: Andrew DiLoreto 51:15 mins., 9 saves, 18 goals allowed; Mike Bogdanor 6:45, 2 svs., 0 GA; Dan Gutierrez 2:00, 0 svs., 0 GA. UVa: Adam Ghitelman 39:01 mins., 4 saves, 0 goals allowed; Mark Wade 15:36, 5 svs., 3 GA; Rob Eimer 5:23, 0 svs., 3 GA.

Shots: VILL 27, UVa 42
Ground Balls: VILL 37, UVa 46
Clearing: VILL 17×21, UVa 24×29
Faceoffs: VILL 10, UVa 17
Penalties: VILL 6-4:30, UVa 4-3:00
EMO: VILL 1×4, UVa 2×5