Mark Cockerton scored a career-high seven goals to lift the No. 4 UVa. Cavaliers (5-0) to a 14-6 road triumph over the Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers (0-4) on Tuesday afternoon, inside Waldron Family Stadium.“I feel we haven’t been sharp enough,” said Virginia head coach dom starsia. “I think it’s a continuation of what the early season has been like for us. I need the bigger, older kids to step up and be a little more consistent in our performance. We wanted to feel like we had taken a positive step and were a little bit better at the end of the game today. It was more of a fight for us. There is a lot of things I like about this team, but we have to be able to produce a more consistent effort overall to become the team we want to be. There were some things to like about today, but we need to be a little more thorough in our effort.”
UVa opened the game on a 3-0 run, which included back-to-back goals by Owen Van Arsdale and one by James Pannell. Mount St. Mary’s put its first dent in the scoreboard with 1:50 left in the opening period on a Evan Gormley unassisted goal.
Cockerton scored his first goal of the game with 59 seconds left in the first period when Van Arsdale found the senior near the crease. Mike Fields cut Mount St. Mary’s deficit down to two goals, 4-2, when he scored at the 13:43 mark in the second period.
Virginia reeled off five-straight goals to take a 9-2 lead. Cockerton scored four goals during the run and Ryan Lukacovic notched his second career goal during the run. Rob Emery assisted Cockerton twice during the run and Lukacovic notched his first collegiate assist. Cockerton capped the run with 4.4 seconds remaining on the clock.
Nick Haley won the ensuing faceoff, picked up the ground ball and launched a desperation shot that sneaked through the goal, sending the game into the intermission with UVa leading by six goals, 9-3.
The Mountaineers controlled the pace of play in the third quarter, holding onto the ball and allowing UVa to take only four shots. Mount St. Mary’s won 3-of-5 faceoffs in the period and enjoyed a 3-1 run. UVa’s lone goal came on a Pannell score via the first collegiate assist from Carlson Milikin. Field capped the run for the Mountaineers with his goal on a Bryden Pelletier helper at 3:04, cutting the MSM deficit to four goals, 10-6. The Mount did not score again.
UVa scored four unanswered goals in the fourth stanza to solidify the win. Cockerton scored twice during the run, while Ryan Tucker added one goal. Joe French capped the run with his first career goal on the first career assist from Zed Williams.
UVa won the battle of shots (37-24) and ground balls (47-27). Mount St. Mary’s won the battle of faceoffs (12-11), saves (12-11) and had more turnovers (22-16).
Greg Danseglio led all players with nine ground balls, while Joseph Lisicky had a game-high four caused turnovers. Bobby Hill and Tanner Scales each added three caused turnovers.
Virginia returns to action on Saturday when the Syracuse Orange visit Klöckner Stadium for the Cavaliers’ ACC opener. The game is set to faceoff at 7:30 p.m., and will be broadcast live on ESPN3. A tape delay of the game will air on ESPNU at 9 a.m. on Sunday.
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Chris Graham
