Attackman Mike D’Amario scored seven goals to lead No. 7 UVA (2-0) to an 18-14 triumph over the Drexel Dragons (0-1) on Saturday afternoon, inside Klöckner Stadium. The seven goals by D’Amario were the most by a Cavalier since Matt White scored seven in the championship game of the 2013 ACC Tournament against North Carolina.
“He is a natural born scorer,” said Tiffany in regards to D’Amario. “That man steps on the field and he wants to shoot the ball every time he touches it. He reminds of some of those guys that are like ‘Hey, if I’m a 35 percent shooter and I miss my first 10 – then you better watch out because I’m a 35 percent shooter and I’m going to get to my ratio.’ He just has that instinct.
“Scoring seven? I’m not sure we expected that because we’ve really been a well-balanced offense in practice and in the first couple of scrimmages and games. Fortunately, he was feeling it, because a couple of our other attackmen weren’t – so we needed him to step up.”
The seven goals ties D’Amario with eight other Cavaliers for fourth-most in a game in program history. The school record is eight goals in a game, which has been done three times, most recently by Garrett Billings in 2009 against Stony Brook.
The scoring was steady and often for both teams. UVA opened up the game with a comfortable 8-3 run. Ryan Lukacovic scored the first two goals for Virginia unassisted. D’Amario scored two of his seven goals during this run. Luke Brugel capped the run with 12:31 left in the second quarter on a helper from Dox Aitken. It was Brugel’s first career goal on Aitken’s first career assist.
Sloppy play by the Cavaliers led to a 5-1 Drexel run to close out the second half, giving UVA a narrow 9-8 lead entering the intermission.
“We found 14 mistakes (last week) that we did again,” said Tiffany. “Fourteen philosophical things we need to change on the offense and defense ends after the first game (at Loyola). I give Drexel credit for taking advantage and taking them up the field today, but we have a lot of work to do here. We have to get better in transition defense for sure.”
UVA sprinted out of the locker room in the third quarter, going on a 4-0 run to extend its lead to five goals, 13-8. D’Amario scored his fourth and fifth goals of the game during the run, capping it on a Zed Williams helper at 5:13 in the third quarter.
The Dragons crept back to one goal, 14-13, via a 5-1 run. Marshal King scored his second goal of the game with 11:31 left in the contest to finish off the Drexel sprint.
After the Drexel run, UVA had one more spurt in them. Aitken and D’Amario each scored two goals on a 4-1 UVA run to finish the game and secure the Cavalier victory.
Seven Cavaliers tallied at least one point in the win and were led by D’Amario’s seven goals. Williams tallied six points on two goals and a game-high four assists. Lukacovic tallied a hat-trick and two assists for five points, while Aitken recorded his second-career hat-trick in his second collegiate game, finishing with three goals and one assist. On the defensive end, Scott Hooper had five ground balls and caused five turnovers.
Drexel was led by Robert Frazee’s three goals and two assists, while King and Cole Shafer also completed hat-tricks for the Dragons.
Virginia won the battle of shots (56-32), ground balls (57-35), faceoffs (23-13) and was 4-of-5 on extra-man opportunities. Drexel won the battle of saves (12-6) and turnovers (25-17).
Virginia returns to action on Tuesday night when Siena comes to Klöckner Stadium. The game will faceoff at 6 p.m. and will be broadcast live on ACC Network Extra.
Drexel 2-6-3-3-14
Virginia 5-4-4-5-18
Att-2960
Scoring (G-A) – D: Robert Frazee 3-2, Cole Shafer 3-1, Marshal King 3-1, Jeremy Omrod 1-2, Reid Bowering 2-0, Jacob O’Donnell 1-1, Zach Manns 0-2, Will Manganiello 1-0, Will Stabbert 0-1, Jude Whalen 0-1 V: Mikw D’Amario 7-0, Zed Williams 2-4, Ryan Lukacovic 3-2, Dox Aitken 3-1, AJ Fish 1-1, Luke Brugel 1-1, Michael Kraus 1-0.
Goalie Summary – D: Jimmy Joe Granito 60:00. 12 saves, 18 goals allowed. V: Will Railey 30:00. 4 saves, 8 goals allowed, Griffin Thompson 30:00. 2 saves, 8 goals allowed.
Shots: D-32, V-56
Ground Balls: D-35, V-57
Clearing: D-17×24, V-17×18
Faceoffs: D-13, V-23
Penalties: D-6-3:30, V-3-2:30
EMO: D-1×2, V-4×5
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Chris Graham
