LEXINGTON, Va. -- The emotions for the VMI lacrosse team ran high as the team's eight graduating seniors and the late Adrian Cmerek were honored before today's game at Patchin Field, and they put together their best outing of the season with a 14-4 victory over the Wagner Seahawks. Nine different Keydets scored in the conference clash, led by sophomore Kevin Hill (Rockville Centre, N.Y./South Side) who netted three goals and two assists.
"There is no better way for the seniors to end their careers (playing at home)," said head coach Doug Bartlett. "As a class, they played extremely well today and I am very proud of all of them."
The eight graduating seniors for the Keydets combined for six goals and an assist. Also, senior goalie Dan Frank (Bel Air, Md./C. Milton Wright) played the first 20 minutes between the pipes, and grabbed three saves without allowing a goal to pick up his second win of the season.
With the win, VMI improves to 3-8 overall, and 2-4 in the MAAC. The Seahawks fall to 0-13, and 0-6 in the conference.
VMI came out strong in the first period of play, netting four goals in the opening frame. Sophomore middie Matt Harrison (Great Mills, MD/St. Mary's Ryken) scored for the Keydets just 2:25 into the game, and senior David Trimble (Oak Hill, Va./Oakton) connected on three straight scores to give the Keydets a 4-0 lead after one period. Trimble now has a team-best 17 goals on the season, one better than twin brother Robert.
Senior Joe Picariello (Sandwich, Mass./Sandwich) finished a Steve Long (Drexel Hill, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara) feed a few minutes into the second period to push the VMI lead up to 5-0. Wagner responded later in the second to get on the board, but the Keydets would regain the momentum with a par of strikes from Hill and John Regan (Mt. Airy, Md./Glenelg), and was Regan's first career goal for the Keydets. Wagner would score the final goal of the half with just 13 ticks remaining, but found themselves trailing 7-2 heading into intermission.
The key to VMI's hot start was due in part to winning the face-off and groundball battles. In the opening half, the Keydets won 9-11 faceoffs thanks to senior middie Tony Cavalero (Annandale, Va./Annandale), who was an impressive 11-14 on the day. Cavalero also helped lead the Keydet groundball attack, which scooped up 34 to their opponent's 11.
"I like the fact that we totally dominated the face-offs and groundballs," added Bartlett. "It was really the key to our success today."
The Keydets came out firing in the second half as well, and Hill scored a nifty unassisted goal to give VMI a six-goal lead just a few minutes into the third. Wagner began to make a push back into the game with back-to-back goals in the third, but the Keydets clamped down and managed to hold the Seahawks scoreless the remainder of the contest.
VMI closed the game on a 6-0 run over the final 23-plus minutes of action. The Keydets scoring came on goals by Long, Harrison, Cavalero, Will Collier (Centreville, Va./Woodberry Forest), Chris DarConte (Merrick, N.Y./Holy Trinity) and a nice behind-the-back strike from Hill.
Aside from Frank, VMI goalie's Josh Blechman (Setauket, N.Y./Ward Mellville) and John Collier (Centreville, Va./Woodberry Forest) saw action in the game. Blechman played 30 minutes in the cage and came up with six saves and four ground balls, while Collier played the final nine minutes for VMI and finished with three saves.
On the game, VMI won 15-21 face-offs and picked up 59 ground balls to Wagner's 27. VMI was solid in the clearing game as well, converting 16-20 opportunities, and outshot the Seahawk's 42-25.
VMI now prepares for their game against local rival Washington & Lee on Tuesday night in the 19th annual Lee-Jackson Classic to be held at W&L's Turf Field at 7:30 p.m.
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Scoring Summary:
1 2 3 4 F
VMI 4 3 5 2 14
Wagner 0 2 2 0 4
WAGNER SCORING -- GOALS: Marchetti, Tom 1; Shull, Evan 1; Policicchio, Jeff 1; Hamilton, Josh 1. ASSISTS: Jax, Jared 2; Marchetti, Tom 1.
VMI SCORING: -- GOALS: Hill, Kevin 3; Trimble, David 3; Harrison, Matt 2; Long, Steve 1; Cavalero, Tony 1; Picariello, Joe 1; Collier, Will 1; DarConte, Chris 1; Regan, John 1. ASSISTS: Hill, Kevin 2; Long, Steve 2; Cavalero, Tony 1.
Shots: VMI - 42; Wagner - 25
Ground balls: VMI - 59; Wagner - 27
Face-offs: VMI - 15-21; Wagner - 6-21
Clears: VMI - 16-20; Wagner - 12-20
Extra-man opps: VMI - 1-5; Wagner - 0-3
Saves: VMI - 12; Wagner - 14
