No. 12 Virginia Falls at Ohio State, 14-5

COLUMBUS, Ohio – No. 12 Virginia (2-2) scored the opening goal, but its lead was short-lived as Ohio State (4-2) dominated the rest of the way to its 14-5 victory Saturday afternoon (Feb. 22) at Ohio State Lacrosse Stadium. A series of unanswered Buckeye scoring runs – one in each half – proved to be too much for the Cavaliers to overcome. Twenty-one turnovers, including four amid its clear, plagued UVA throughout Saturday’s contest. 

For the second straight game, Ryan Colsey (4g, 1a, 3gb) led the Hoos in goals and points. Defensively, Ben Wayer and Noah Chizmar picked up six ground balls each. Virginia dominated the faceoff X, winning 14 of the game’s 20 total draws. 

Ohio State goalie Caleb Fyock (5-0) earned his fifth consecutive win in as many tries and stopped 12 Cavalier shots. Two of UVA’s goals came on man-up situations. For Virginia, Kyle Morris (2-2) made six saves in 45 minutes of action. Matthew Nunes relieved Morris in an effort to impose a 10-man ride against the Buckeyes. 

HOW IT HAPPENED
Virginia scored on the opening possession when Truitt Sunderland (3a) fed Colsey from X. OSU flipped the score on back-to-back unassisted goals as the Buckeyes led 2-1 at the end of the first. Will Erdmann had what would have been his first career goal after caroling a pass from Colsey in a tight window, but upon an officials’ review the goal was waived off after it was deemed Erdmann stepped in the crease. Neither team was able to convert its extra-man chance in the opening quarter. 

UVA was whistled for a hold in the waning seconds of the first quarter, so the Buckeyes started with possession to begin the second and scored 22 seconds into the period while both teams each had one man in the penalty box. The goal was the only one by either team in the second quarter as Fyock turned away three Cavalier shots in the second quarter, including one on defenseman John Schroter, who fired an open, bouncing shot in transition with just under 2:00 to play in the half. 

The Buckeyes promptly doubled their goal total in the first five minutes of the second half after firing off three consecutive strikes. The Cavaliers then mounted a run of their own with scores from Colsey (2) and Griffin Schutz in a span of less than 90 seconds. However, whatever momentum UVA had quickly vanished as OSU scored four unanswered and clung to a 10-4 lead entering the fourth. 

Nunes started in-goal to begin the fourth and Buckeyes picked apart UVA’s defensive pressure with sharp passing. OSU scored four unanswered goals to lead by as many as 10 [14-4]. Virginia’s only goal of the fourth came with 15 seconds remaining in the game on an extra-man situation after OSU was flagged for a two-minute, non-releasable illegal body check of which McCabe Millon was on the receiving end. 

NOTES 

• Ohio State improved to 8-2 in the all-time series, which began in 1968, and snapped a two-game losing skid. 
• Saturday’s game marked UVA’s first-ever at Ohio State Lacrosse Stadium, which opened in 2023. 
• Virginia dominated faceoffs, 14-for-20, and has now finished above .500 at the center X in all four games so far this season.  
• UVA’s man-down held Buckeyes scoreless on all three of their three extra-man opportunities. Virginia has still only allowed one opposing EMO goal on 16 opportunities this season. 
• With six goals and three assists against High Point last Tuesday, Colsey led UVA in goals and points for the second straight game. 
• With one goal scored, Griffin Schutz moved to sole possession of No. 10 on UVA’s career goals list by a midfielder. Schutz now has 76 career goals. 
• Schutz is also now tied with Kyle Dixon on UVA’s career points list by a midfielder with 112. 
• UVA’s five goals are its lowest in a single game since falling 11-4 to Loyola in its season opener on Feb. 13, 2016. 
• The Cavaliers surrendered unanswered runs of six and eight goals in the first and second halves, respectively. UVA entered Saturday’s contest having not given up more than four unanswered goals in a single game so far this season. 
• Millon’s 11-game goal and 21-game point streaks came to an end.  

UP NEXT
Virginia continues its three-game road stint next Saturday (March 1), when it travels to No. 4 Johns Hopkins (4-1) in a showdown for the Doyle Smith Cup, featuring one of college lacrosse’s most iconic rivalries.  

In last year’s regular-season meeting at Klöckner Stadium, the Blue Jays outscored UVA by four goals in the second half to nab a 16-14 victory, and regained possession of the Smith Cup in the process. However, the Cavaliers avenged the loss in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals, when Connor Shellenberger’s double-overtime goal secured UVA’s spot at Championship Weekend and ended Hopkins’ season in dramatic fashion. 

No. 9 North Carolina mounted a fourth-quarter comeback to knock off the Blue Jays, 13-12, at Homewood Field Saturday afternoon.