Carroll Leads No. 1 Virginia With Five Goals in Victory Over Vermont

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Brian Carroll scored a game high and equaled a career best with five goals as the No. 1 Virginia Cavaliers (7-0) cruised to an 18-7 triumph over the visiting Vermont Catamounts (1-5) Tuesday night inside Klöckner Stadium.

Virginia now has a 23-game winning streak going back to 2001 in regular-season mid-week games, including a 15-7 triumph at Mount St. Mary’s on Feb. 23 and a 20-6 victory over VMI on March 9. Virginia is also 25-1 all-time in night games at Klöckner Stadium, losing a 6 p.m. game to Duke in 2008, 19-9.

“It felt like a bit of a predictable pattern, but you must give Vermont credit,” said Virginia head coach Dom Starsia. “They came in with a pattern and they played hard. With them playing the zone early in the game, it forced us to be more patient than we wanted to be. You don’t get control of the game as early as you would like to and so it tends to be a little frustrating, but we just kept chipping away at it.”

Virginia outshot Vermont 55-32, while only scoring 18 times, becoming a point of concern for Starsia.

“We didn’t shoot particularly well,” said Starsia. “I was frustrated because the balls weren’t going in, but I felt we were getting good shots. We just weren’t making good shots. We could have had six more goals in the first half that we just didn’t get. We had some really good looks at the cage, but we just didn’t make good shots. It was a workmanlike effort. It would have really been something if we were particularly inspired tonight, but we worked at it and got the W.”

Vermont started things on a goal from Geoff Worley with 10:30 left in the opening quarter on a pass from Liam Thomas, giving the Catamounts the early 1-0 lead. The goal was of the man-up variety after Steele Stanwick (Baltimore, Md.) was flagged for offsides 30 seconds early. The goal was scored as the sophomore was released.

Virginia then rattled off a 12-2 run that went into the third quarter, helping the Cavaliers take a commanding 12-3 lead. Carroll (Towson, Md.) scored four of his game-high five goals during the run and it was his score with 6:44 remaining in the third quarter that capped the streak.

Chris Bocklet (South Salem, N.Y.), Connor English (Manhasset, N.Y.) and Chris LaPierre (Medford, N.J.) all scored two goals, while Shamel Bratton (Huntington Station, N.Y.) and Tim Fuchs (Merrick, N.Y.) each tallied a goal.

Thomas and Garrett Virtue each scored for Vermont in the midst of the UVa run. Thomas came on a Worley pass to end the first quarter scoring for both teams, while Virtue started the second quarter scoring with an unassisted score 2:03 into the period.

Virtue scored his second goal with 5:36 left in the third quarter, ending the UVa run. However, Bocklet scored back-to-back goals to push the Cavaliers’ advantage up to 10 goals, 14-4.

Derek Lichtfuss ended the third quarter scoring with a goal with 2:04 remaining in the period on a Drew Philie pass, cutting Vermont’s deficit to single digits, 14-5.

LaPierre ended up taking a ground ball the length of the field and stamping home another UVa score 58 seconds into the final quarter, pushing UVa’s lead back to 10 goals, 15-5. The Virginia score started a 4-1 Cavalier run that was capped by their final score with 5:49 left in the final quarter on Fuchs’ second goal of the game, via LaPierre assist.

Vermont finished its scoring like it started the game, with a goal from Worley with 3:48 left in the game. The Catamounts beat the UVa defense and Worley secured the goal during a one-on-one situation with back-up UVa goalie Rob Fortunato (Essex Fells, N.J.)

Carroll scored five goals on six shots to pace the UVa offense. Ken Clausen (Downington, Pa.) and Bray Malphrus (Chevy Chase, Md.) spearheaded the UVa defense that forced Vermont to commit 18 turnovers. Both Clausen and Malphrus caused three apiece.

Worley paced Vermont in the losing effort with two goals and two assists. Virtue also added two scores.

Virginia hits the road again on Sunday when it travels to Towson. The game is slated for noon and will be broadcast in the Charlottesville area on WINA AM 1070 with John Freeman calling the action. The game will be televised nationally on ESPNU and in the Baltimore region on WMAR.

Vermont 2-1-2-2-7
Virginia 4-4-6-4-18
Att-1229

Scoring (G-A) – Vermont: Geoff Worley 2-2, Garrett Virtue 2-0, Drew Philie 1-2, Liam Thomas 1-1, Derek Lichtfuss 1-0 Virginia: Brian Carroll 5-0, Chris Bocklet 4-0, Chris LaPierre 3-2, Connor English 2-0, Tim Fuchs 2-0, Shamel Bratton 1-3, Matt Kugler 1-0, Steele Stanwick 0-3, John Haldy 0-2, Ken Clausen 0-1, Nick O’Reilly 0-1, Matt White 0-1.

Goalie Summary – Vermont: David Barton 38:50 mins., 11 saves, 12 goals allowed; Alex Plavner 21:10 mins., 4 saves, 6 goals allowed Virginia: Adam Ghitelman 45:00 mins., 5 saves, 5 goals allowed, Rob Fortunato 14:24 mins., 6 saves, 2 goals allowed, Will Bolton :36 mins., 2 saves, 0 goal allowed

Shots: Vermont-32, Virginia-55

Ground Balls: Vermont-34, Virginia-45

Clearing: Vermont-15×21, Virginia-20×21

Faceoffs: Vermont-9, Virginia-20

Penalties: Vermont-4-3:30, Virginia-5-4:00

EMO: Vermont-2×4, Virginia-2×3