No. 8 UVA Jets Past Air Force on Saturday Afternoon, 20-4

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.  – The No. 8 Virginia Cavaliers (5-1) used a 12-1 run to the start the game as they cruised past the Air Force Falcons (1-3) on Saturday afternoon, 20-4, at Klöckner Stadium.

Connor Shellenberger dished four assists in the first quarter as six different Cavaliers scored goals, including Peter Garno, who notched his first career hat-trick in the opening frame. The ball was humming around in the first half as UVA held a 13-2 advantage at the intermission. Nine of the 13 first-half goals were assisted for the Cavaliers.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Garno started the UVA offense on a Shellenberger helper 2:01 into the game. He also scored unassisted at 5:18 in the first quarter and again with 1:48 left in the opening frame when Shellenberger found him again.

Charlie Bertrand scored four goals in the first half, while Matt Moore dished out four assists. Shellenberger scored his only goal of the game at 5:11 in the third quarter on a Bertrand assist to give UVA a 16-2 lead. As UVA emptied the bench, Patrick McIntosh scored his first two career goals, while Connell Kumar also netted his first collegiate goal in the fourth quarter.

Air Force had its chances, but UVA goalie Alex Rode turned away nine of the 11 shots he saw on goal, including six saves in the first half.

UVA STAT LEADERS
• A Charlie Bertrand
4 goals, 1 assist

• A Connor Shellenberger
1 goal, 4 assists

• A Matt Moore
4 assists

• M Peter Garno
3 goals

NOTES
• Charlie Bertrand now has a point in all 64 of his career games, which is the longest current streak in the nation.
• Bertrand also has at least one goal in all 64 of his career games, which extends his collegiate record.
• GK Alex Rode won his 30th career game in the cage, which puts him in a three-way tie with Peter Sheehan (30-10) and James Ireland (30-14) for No. 4 all-time at UVA in career goalie wins. Rode is now 30-12.
• With 12 faceoff wins, Petey LaSalla now has 359 career wins, passing Tony Nugent (1992-95) for No. 7 all-time at UVA for career faceoff wins.
• Patrick McIntosh and Connell Kumar scored their first collegiate goals.

FROM THE LOCKER ROOM
“It was really rewarding to see our offense generate a lot of opportunities to score for others. We were able to facilitate, starting with Connor Shellenberger and Matt Moore. They were dodging, creating, and finding open teammates. That was really great to see, because we haven’t had a lot of assists in recent games. It was really nice to see how Coach [Sean] Kirwan put our team into some dodging angles, and then we just shared the ball more and we moved the ball more, which is important against a goalie like [Braden] Host. That was really critical, to get him moving from pipe to pipe instead of just seeing the ball the entire time.”- Lars Tiffany

UP NEXT
UVA returns to action on Thursday night for a showdown with No. 1 North Carolina at Klöckner Stadium. Faceoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the game will be televised live on ACC Network.