No. 1 Virginia (2-0) rode a career-high eight points from Steele Stanwick on Tuesday afternoon, as the Cavaliers cruised past the Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers (0-1) inside Klöckner Stadium, 22-6.
“It was a bit of a surprise, in the locker room before the game the team was very quiet and I wasn’t sure we were ready to give that kind of effort,” said Virginia head coach Dom Starsia. “But we were ready right from the beginning. We were very good at getting the ball up off the ground and since we were doing that we were able to control the pace of the game. Mt. St. Mary’s was never able to get a run against us, so we kept getting the ball back – I give our guys a lot of credit – it was a good day overall.”
In the victory two sets of Virginia brothers tallied points in the game. Rhamel and Shamel Bratton combined for a total of four points via three goals and one assist. Matt and Mark Cockerton tallied a total of three points, via two goals and one assist.
Goalie Adam Ghitelman made nine saves and picked up his 39th career win between the pipes for the Cavaliers. The nine saves give Ghitelman 417 for his career, moving him to 10th all-time in the UVa annals. The senior is one victory away from becoming the 17th player all-time in the country to amass 40 career wins in goal. The next victory for Ghitelman will tie him for the UVa record with Kip Turner.
The Cavaliers scored the game’s first seven goals, three of which were on extra-man opportunities. Rob Emery took a Stanwick pass and deposited it in the goal with 2:43 left in the first quarter to cap the 7-0 streak. Cody Lehrer scored with 52 seconds left in the quarter to put the Mountaineers on the board, 7-1.
“That’s a good lacrosse team,” said Starsia. “This game [on the schedule] made me nervous; a Tuesday after a Saturday game at home for us, and it was their first game – they had a lot more time to prepare for this. Getting off to a good start was a good signal for us. We put them on their heels early on, and the better part was that we never gave in; we never let them make a run at us and that is what I was happiest about.”
Virginia outscored the Mount 4-1 in the second quarter to take an 11-2 lead into the intermission. Rhamel Bratton, Matt Kugler, Chris Bocklet and Stanwick all scored in the quarter.
UVa won the third quarter 7-2, highlighted by Blake Riley’s first career goal off a Stanwick pass with 7:27 remaining in the quarter. Brett Schmidt and Anthony Golden scored goals for the Mount in the third quarter.
Connor English and Matt White each scored their third goals of the game in the fourth quarter, while UVa held a 4-2 edge in the final stanza. Brooks Bradley ended the game’s scoring after picking up a ground ball after a save by UVa third-string goalie Connor McGee. In the melee for the ground ball, Bradley was able to flick the ball into the net.
Virginia was perfect on clears (22-of-22) and extra-man opportunities (4-of-4), while its defense created havoc for the Mount St. Mary’s clearing game, as the Mount failed on seven of 18 attempts. The Mountaineers also were 0-of-3 in the extra-man opportunities.
Virginia dominated the ground ball game (59-39), while finishing even in faceoffs (15-15) and was nearly even in saves, as the Mount won that category (13-12). Chris LaPierre had a career-high eight ground balls for UVa, leading all players. He also went 4-of-5 on faceoffs, his first attempts of his career.
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