Men's Lacrosse Dropped Saturday by No. 11 Virginia to Open Season, 13-8

Saturday, February 17

Vidas Field

1 p.m.

Drexel University

0-1

#11 Virginia

2-0

Virginia

Drexel

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

Men's Lacrosse Dropped Saturday by No. 11 Virginia to Open Season, 13-8

2/17/2018 3:07:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA – The Drexel men's lacrosse team opened its season on Saturday falling to No. 11 Virginia at Vidas Field, 13-8. The Dragons (0-1) found themselves down by two goals just 14 seconds into the action, but regrouped and hung with the nationally-ranked Cavaliers (2-0) for much of the afternoon.

Will Manganiello put together his second career hat trick, adding an assist for a career-best four points. Matthew Varian, seeing his first action since 2016 after missing last year due to injury, chipped in two goals and an assist. He also caused a turnover on the defensive end. Robert Frazee added a goal and two assists, and Marshall King scored once with a helper and two ground balls.

Virginia wasted no time getting an early lead. Justin Schwenk won the opening draw and raced in for a shot that beat Drexel's redshirt freshman goalkeeper Casey DuBois, giving the Cavaliers a lead just nine seconds in. Virginia won the ensuing face-off on a violation and Ryan Conrad sprinted towards the goal, providing the Cavaliers with a two-goal lead just 14 seconds into the contest.

Drexel was able to settle down and got its first goal of the new season halfway through the first period. Marshall King found Will Manganiello, who fired a shot from 10 yards away to cut the lead in half. The Cavaliers answered with a Dox Aitken score about a minute later and added another later in the first quarter, giving Virginia a 4-1 lead after 15 minutes of play. The Cavaliers controlled possession for most of the quarter and won all six face offs in the period.

The Dragons started much better in quarter number two. Early on, Manganiello set up Robert Frazee to make it a 4-2 game. The Dragons were able to win the next face off and then, with 8:28 to play until halftime, Manganiello drove the left alley and scored his second of the afternoon, cutting the lead to one.

Drexel had the momentum and got a man advantage after a Virginia penalty. However, Virginia killed the penalty and then, with a flag on the field, Aitken drilled a lefty shot from the left wing to push the lead to two. That opened the flood gates as Virginia netted five straight in relatively quick succession to take a commanding 9-3 lead at the half.

The Dragons came out of the locker room strong, scoring twice in the first 3:09 of the third quarter to get back in the contest. First, Frazee found Reid Bowering inside for the sophomore's first goal of 2018. Then, Manganiello capped his hat trick with 11:51 to play in the third, making it a 9-5 game.

Virginia settled in and put the Dragons' offense on ice for most of the remaining time in the third quarter. The Cavaliers scored just twice themselves, but kept Drexel off the board until Varian found King for a goal with 34 ticks remaining. Early in the fourth, it was Varian finishing a feed from Frazee to make it an 11-7 game, but Drexel would get no closer as again the Cavaliers' defense kept the Dragons off the scoreboard for more than 10 minutes of game time.

Drexel will return to action next Saturday, Feb. 24, when the Dragons make their first road trip of the 2018 season to Albany. The Dragons and Great Danes will face off at noon, beginning a stretch of four road games out of five for Drexel over the next three weeks.