CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.- A Keith Long goal at the 9:41 mark of the first half brought the Keydets even with the No.1 team in the nation, but the Cavaliers outscored VMI 21-5 the rest of the contest to take a 22-6 win Mon., Feb. 28 at Virginia's Klõckner Stadium. Long led the Keydets with a pair of scores, while seniors Bobby Davis, Lowell Patterson, and juniors Drew Leonard and Tyler Griffith had goals on the night for the Keydets.
Trailing 1-0 at the 9:41 mark of the first quarter, VMI (1-3) junior Keith Long scored his fourth goal of the season on a crank-shot from the right flank to momentarily knot the contest at 1-1.
However, VMI committed a pair of penalties on defense in the ensuing minutes resulting in a pair of man-up goals by Virginia's Chris Bocklet to give Virginia a 3-1 lead with 8:26 left in the second quarter.
Trailing 6-1 after the first quarter of action, the Cavaliers (4-0) added a pair of scores in the opening minute of action to take an 8-1 lead on Bocklet's fourth of the game and Steele Stanwick's second score of the contest. Following another Stanwick goal, VMI held the Cavaliers scoreless for the next 4:36 of play until Matt White made it 10-1 in favor of UVA.
The Keydets trailed 12-1 at the intermission, as VMI was outshot 40-7 at the break, and trailed 35-19 in the ground ball category. Junior Andrew Nieminski led VMI in shots at the half with a pair. Junior goalie Kelly McMinn made 10 stops in the first half for the Keydets in the opening half of action.
Bocklet and Stanwick tacked on their sixth points on the night early in the third quarter of play, as Stanwick scored at the 10:52 mark, followed by Bocklet's tally at the 10:09 mark to stretch the score to 14-1 in favor of UVA early in the third quarter. After Bocklet's sixth goal of the day on a man-up opportunity, a pair of VMI seniors in Bobby Davis and Lowell Patterson added to the Keydet tally.
Davis had his team-leading fifth score of the year on a crank-shot from the left flank to bring the score to 15-2 with 4:02 left in the third. Patterson's second score of the year came with 1:37 left in the third frame, beating Virginia keeper Rob Fortunado stick-side high to cut the Cavalier lead to 15-3, a mark that stood heading into the fourth quarter after a third frame where the Keydets were outscored by a narrow 3-2 margin.
UVA extended its lead to 18-3 in the early portion of the fourth, but Long added his second score of the day on a man-up situation on a shot from 20 yards out off a feed from freshman attackman Mickey Hofmeister from the X position, who was making his first-career appearance for VMI after missing the early portion of the season recovering from a knee injury. The man-up score was the fourth of the season for the Keydets, and the first man-down goal allowed by the Cavaliers this season.
VMI went on its second 2-0 run of the day a 1:33 seconds later, as junior Drew Leonard dodged a Virginia defender off a pass from Russell East, beating the Cavalier keeper Fortunado top right for VMI's fifth-score of the day and bring the score to 18-5. Virginia outscored the Keydets 4-1 in the final the rest of the contest, with Griffith netting his second score of the season with 1:59 left in the contest to carry the score to a final of 22-6.
Freshman Pat Johnston had his shot in the cage in the third quarter for the Keydets, making four stops before giving way to fellow freshman Mark Hargrove in the fourth quarter, who made one save in his collegiate debut.
Virginia earned a substantial 65-20 shot advantage on the contest, and had 63 groundballs to VMI's 49. The Keydets were 1-of-2 on man-up opportunities, and the three Keydet goalies combined to make 15 saves in the defeat. McMinn takes the loss for VMI and falls to 1-3 on the year, while UVA starter Adam Ghitelman earned his school-record 41st win of his career to improve to 4-0 on the season.
VMI returns to action following an extended layoff on Sat., March 12 against Presbyterian. Faceoff is set for 1 p.m. from VMI's Foster Stadium. Live video, stats and Twitter updates will be available.
