Steele Stanwick scored five goals, including the game-winning goal, to lead the No. 1 Virginia Cavaliers (3-0) to a thrilling 11-10 triumph over the No. 5 Stony Brook Seawolves (0-1) in overtime, Saturday afternoon, inside LaValle Stadium. Stanwick added two assists for a game-high seven points.
With 44 seconds left in the first overtime period, Stanwick grabbed a ricochet ground ball in front of the cage and delivered the winning shot in the open net.
“I give our kids a lot of credit,” said Virginia head coach Dom Starsia. “We saddled them defensively the entire game, but you can’t stop them from making all the plays. It was a great lacrosse game – another great matchup, another great atmosphere here in Stony Brook.
The overtime contest was UVa’s first since beating Maryland 10-9 in seven overtimes, the longest game in NCAA DI history.
Goalie Adam Ghitelman picked up his 40th career win between the pipes for the Cavaliers, becoming the 17th player all-time in the nation to reach the milestone. The milestone puts Ghitelman in a tie with Kip Turner for the UVa record for goalie wins.
Stanwick put the Cavaliers on the board early after picking off a Seawolves clear attempt and scoring unassisted 1:22 into the game. The junior slid the ball past Rob Camposa, the Stony Brook goaltender, in a one-on-one situation.
Stony Brook scored three-straight goals to take a 3-1 lead, only the third advantage the Seawolves have ever had over UVa in the nine-game history of the series. Potential national player of the year candidate Kevin Crowley scored back-to-back goals, the first on a Mike Rooney pass with 6:57 left in the first quarter in an unsettled situation.
Crowley scored again with 8:00 left in the second stanza on a Robbie Campbell pass. Campbell then found Brett Drost with 4:32 left in the first half, capping the run.
Stanwick cut the UVa defecit to a goal, 3-2, when he scored in transition. Bray Malphrus tallied his first career assist on the scoring play. Mark Cockerton evened the score at 1:47 remaining with his unassisted score.
Drost started the second half scoring for Stony Brook with a goal via Crowley with 11:52 left in the third period, giving the Seawolves the 4-3 lead.
Virginia took over and scored the next four goals to take a 7-4 advantage. Chris Bocklet scored his lone goal of the day, Stanwick scored back-to-back goals, followed by Cockerton’s second score to cap the run.
Crowley and Timmy Trenkle countered with goals for Stony Brook and UVa’s lead was cut to one goal, 7-6, with 5:33 left in the game. Colin Briggs scored in transition with 4:12 left to push the score to 8-6. Matt White scored on the extra-man situation with 3:28 remaining to extend the UVa advantage to three goals, 9-6.
Stony Brook reeled off a 4-1 run to force overtime with the score knotted at 10 apiece. Crowley scored his fourth and final goal of the day with 21 seconds – followed by a Russ Bonanno goal with three seconds left sent the contest to the extra period.
“When we got a two goal lead with a couple minutes left in the game – it seems like a big lead at the time,” said Starisa. “We needed to keep playing – which we did – if I had to guess, I would have guessed that the game would have come down to this.”
Stony Brook won the overtime faceoff and reeled 3:20 off the clock, but was unable to score as Ghitelman stuffed a shot, making the save on Crowley. UVa ran the offense and after a scrum for the ball, Stanwick scored the game winner.
Briggs and Cockerton added two goals for UVa. Ghitelman saved nine shots and picked up a team-best six ground balls, while Matt Lovejoy added five ground balls and three caused turnovers.
Crowley led Stony Brook with four goals and one assist, while Drost added three scores. Camposa made eight saves in the goal for the Seawolves.
Stony Brook won most of the categories, including faceoffs (17-9), ground balls (34-26) and shots (34-32).
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Chris Graham
