The Keydets fell behind 4-0 to the Canisius Golden Griffins in the first 10 minutes of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) contest Saturday, April 9 at Foster Stadium, but VMI but rallied back to close the to 5-4 at the end of the first quarter. However, the Golden Griffins shutout the Keydets in second quarter 3-0 to build an 8-4 lead and never looked back, defeating VMI 13-9 on Wounded Warrior Project Day. The annual event generated over $2,000 to benefit the project, with the proceeds being donated in the name of the VMI Lacrosse Program.
Junior Tyler Griffith got the scoring started for the Keydets (2-9, 0-4 MAAC) with his eighth score of the season with 1:44 left in the first quarter on a feed from classmate Keith Long to bring the score to 4-1. After Canisius’ Dan Coastes scored to give the Golden Griffins (2-6, 2-1 MAAC) a 5-1 lead, the Keydets closed the first quarter of action on a 3-0 run as sophomore Anderson Caldwell, starting on attack for the first time this season, junior Drew Leonard and Griffith beat Canisius’ Sean Callahan to carry the score to 5-4 heading into the second quarter of play.
The second quarter began with each side on a scoreless streak, as the two teams failed to score for nearly the first 10 minutes of the second frame. Brendan O’Hagan scored snapped the drought for Canisius at the 5:14 mark to give the Golden Griffins a 6-4 lead. The Golden Griffins then went on to close out the half with two more sores from Graham Bergsma and Nick LoCoco to carry an 8-4 lead into the half.
Canisius outshot VMI 23-13 in the first half, and were a perfect 7-of-7 on clear attempts. The ground ball battle was even at 15, while VMI goalie Matt Lindemann made seven saves to Callahan’s six in the cage.
The second half opened up with the Golden Griffins capitalizing on a man-up goal, as Greg Michael took a pass from LoCoco to give the Golden Griffins a 9-5 advantage and LoCoco his fifth assist of the game. After junior Chris Rossie scored his third goal of the season on a pass from Leonard cut the Canisius advantage to 9-5, Canisius scores by LoCoco and Domres stretched the lead to 11-5 heading into the final quarter of play.
VMI outscored Canisius 4-2 in the final quarter of action, as junior Andrew Nieminski beat Callahan for his sixth score of the season to bring the score to 11-6 with 9:45 left to play. The Keydets finished the game on a high-note, outscoring Canisius 3-2 over the final nine minutes of action, keyed by scores from Leonard, Long, and Caldwell to send the contest to the final tally of 13-9.
Canisius won the shot category 36-31, and were a perfect 16-of-16 on clears. VMI took the ground ball advantage 34-26, and were 11-of-13 on clear attempts. Lindemann made 13 saves in the cage to Callahan’s 9 in his second start of the season.
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