Men's Lacrosse Drops Season Opener to No. 14 Virginia, 14-7

Saturday, February 20

Vidas Field

1:00

Drexel University

0-1

#13 Virginia

1-1

VIRGINIA

DREXEL

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

Men's Lacrosse Drops Season Opener to No. 14 Virginia, 14-7

2/20/2016 3:08:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

Philadelphia, Pa. –The University of Virginia Cavaliers scored four straight goals to start the second half and defeated the Drexel Dragons, 14-7, in the Dragons' season-opener Saturday at Vidas Field.

The teams went back and forth in the early going, swapping the first five goals. Virginia's (1-1) Zed Williams got the visitors on the board first two minutes into the game. Drexel answered at the 8:05 mark when Michael Kay set up Cole Shafer for the Dragons' first goal of 2016. With just two minutes left in the quarter, Greg Coholan put the Cavaliers ahead, 2-1, on an unassisted goal.

Frazee evened the score early in the second quarter for Drexel, but the Cavaliers answered with four of the next five goals to take a 6-3 lead. Virginia would not trail again. Mikey Herring set up the first two goals, one by A.J. Fish and the other by Mike D'Amario. Frazee briefly ended the run with his second of the day, but Ryan Conrad and Ryan Lamb scored within a span of 1:03 to give Virginia a three-goal cushion. The Dragons ended the run with just 10 seconds to go when Hank Brown's unassisted tally made it 6-4 at intermission. The Dragons were behind by just two despite getting outshot, 33-11, in the first 30 minutes. Jimmy Joe Granito came up big in the first half in the cage for the Dragons, making 12 saves to keep the Dragons in it.

The first 10 minutes of the third quarter was all Virginia. Fish scored his second of the game four minutes in and then Colohan scored the next two, making it 9-4 with 5:31 to play in the third. The lead became six just eight seconds later when Jason Murphy set up D'Amario for his second of the day. Drexel finally snapped the run when senior Jules Raucci fired a shot past Matt Barrett with 2:28 on the clock. Marshal King gave the Dragons some life when he found the net for his first time as a collegian, making it 10-6 after three quarters.

The Cavaliers (Williams) and Dragons (Jacob O'Donnell) alternated goals to start the final quarter before Virginia put the game away with three more goals in the final six minutes of the contest.

Granito finished the day with 17 saves for Drexel. Colohan finshed with three goals and five points for Virginia. The visitors outshot Drexel, 51-29, and won 16 of 25 face-offs.

The Dragons return to the field next Saturday when they travel to Central New York to take on Albany.