No. 5 Virginia Men's Lacrosse Cruises Past Robert Morris 16-7
After suffering its first loss of the season to Johns Hopkins on Saturday, the Cavaliers responded with a comfortable 16-7 win over Robert Morris. The Colonials won the opening faceoff, but McCabe Millon erupted with three goals in less than two minutes, erasing any chance of an upset from the Colonials. Behind the strong start from Millon, Virginia continued to pile on the goals early, allowing players further down the depth chart to receive playing time throughout the game.
Although the score shows the Cavaliers winning by a comfortable margin, the poor decision-making from the Johns Hopkins game carried over into their matchup on Tuesday night. After having a season-high 16 turnovers against the Blue Jays on Saturday, Virginia committed 19 against a much weaker opponent in the Colonials.
Some of the turnovers can be attributed to players lower on the depth chart getting action, but it was clear that this was not the picture-perfect response to the loss the Cavaliers were looking for.
Millon was the party starter for the Cavaliers, scoring the first three goals of the game, the first off of a question mark dodge, the second from a diving shovel shot, and the third a behind-the-back shot, demonstrating his unique scoring ability, while giving Virginia an early lead.
Robert Morris responded with a goal before Virginia fired back with a six-goal run, which carried over into the second quarter. The run saw another goal from Millon, while Connor Shellenberger added a goal and two assists.
In terms of addressing struggles from the last game, goalie Matthew Nunes made four saves in the opening quarter, including two point-blank saves, a solid bounce back after registering his lowest save percentage of the season against Johns Hopkins.
As for the faceoff x, Anthony Ghobriel remained sidelined due to injury, but the committee of Matthew DeSouza and Thomas Colucci started 6/9, propelling Virginia into the lead. The duo would finish 16/26.
Although the Cavaliers improved on faceoffs and goalkeeping, the turnovers persisted. Virginia committed ten turnovers in the second quarter, which included dropped and forced passes, including an overthrown pass that allowed Robert Morris to score a buzzer-beater goal at the half.
Despite this, Virginia led 11-4 at the half as the Colonials outscored the Cavaliers 3-2 to close the quarter.
To open the second half, Virginia had its starting attack unit on the field to extend Virginia's lead as Cormier buried three straight goals to increase his total to five on the day. Those would be Virginia's only three goals of the quarter, as the Cavaliers committed five more turnovers.
On the defensive side, backup Kyle Morris was in net to start the half and he started strong with two saves. Morris would finish with eight saves in a game where he saw the most game action of his career so far, giving Virginia hope for the future when Matthew Nunes graduates in two years.
After that, Robert Morris scored two goals before Ryan Colsey scored his second goal of the day to add to Virginia’s 15-6 lead at the end of the third quarter.
Virginia then took its foot off the gas, opting for its second attack and defense lines to close the game. Chase Band scored the only goal of the fourth quarter for Virginia, the first of his career, giving Virginia a 16-7 win over Robert Morris.
McCabe Millon led the Cavaliers with four goals and three assists, followed by Payton Cormier, who added five goals on ten shots. Connor Shellenberger registered a goal and three assists. On the ground, Virginia was tenacious, scooping up 51 ground balls compared to Robert Morris’s 40.
The Cavaliers will close out their busy spring break stretch of three games in seven days on the road against Towson on Saturday, March 9th at noon.
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