LEXINGTON, Va. - The Jacksonville Dolphins scored six unanswered goals, including the first five tallies of the second half, to post an 8-3 Southern Conference win over VMI Saturday afternoon at Drill Field #2.
The Dolphins took the lead for good with 7:11 left before halftime on a goal by Jet Harding to start the game-deciding run.
Jacksonville won its second straight game and improved its season overall mark to 4-2, 1-0 in the SoCon. VMI fell to 0-7 and 0-2 in SoCon action.
The visitors saw three players - Tom Moore, Rob Moore and Conor Igoe - score two goals apiece in their win, while Bull led the Keydets offensively with his two goals.
After JU had taken the early 2-0 lead, a pair of second period goals by junior midfielder Dan Bull pulled VMI even at 2-2 by the 10:43 mark before halftime. Harding's goal made it a 3-2 contest at the break.
After a tight back-and-forth opening 10 minutes of the second half, Dolphin senior midfielder Quint Miller lifted a rising shot past VMI goalkeeper Evan Windisch with 4:48 left in the third period. Redshirt senior attack Rob Moore followed with consecutive even strength unassisted goals to break open the game and give JU a 6-2 lead, while Igoe and Tom Moore added scores late.
The Keydets closed out the scoring with a goal by senior midfielder Eric Groleau with 1:16 remaining in the game.
Windisch posted 11 saves for the Keydets on the afternoon, while JU keeper Bass Barfield stopped seven Keydet tries. The Dolphins outshot the Keydets, 40-25 and edged VMI in ground balls, 27-23, but one of the key differences was at the X, where Jacksonville was 10 of 15 to 5 of 15 for the Keydets.
VMI did show strong improvement in the clearing game, going 20 for 22 while JU was 18 for 18.
"After losing three starters to injury in our game against Richmond last week, I couldn't be prouder of how our guys responded to some major personnel and system adjustments for both the Air Force and Jacksonville games. We are not happy with the results and we clearly have some questions that still need to be answered but the resolve of this group of men is impressive," said VMI head coach Brian Anken.
VMI returns to action March 17 at Wagner in Staten Island, N.Y. at 3 p.m.
