#9 UVA (6-2) walked away with an impressive 16-11 triumph over the #15 Johns Hopkins Blue Jays (4-4) on Saturday night at historic Homewood Field, returning the Doyle Smith Cup to Charlottesville for the first time since 2016.
The game began as a see-saw battle that boasted seven ties and five lead changes, but the Cavaliers trailing 8-7 early in the third quarter went on a 9-2 run to take a commanding six-goal lead with 7:36 left to play. The five-goal win was also UVA’s largest all-time win over the Blue Jays at Homewood Field. The previous best was four goals in 1997 (16-12).
Michael Kraus scored an unassisted goal after dodging from X to tie the game at 8-8 with 7:50 left in the third quarter. The Kraus goal started a 3-0 UVA run that gave the Cavaliers the lead for good. Ryan Conrad continued the run when he took the ball to the rack in transition with 7:26 left in the third quarter. Dox Aitken capped the spurt when he dodged to space and got his hands free with 5:01 left in the third, giving UVA its first two-goal lead of the game (10-8) since the Cavaliers led 2-0 to start the contest.
Johns Hopkins narrowed its deficit to one goal, 10-9, after Evan Zinn found nylon at 4:40 in the third. However, UVA quickly reeled off four-straight goals to take a commanding 14-9 lead. Aitken capped the streak when he completed his hat-trick on an Ian Laviano pass, scoring an extra-man goal with 9:51 left to play.
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Chris Graham
