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The theme of Virginia’s season to this point has been close games — more specifically, one-goal games. The Cavaliers endured four straight overtime games in late February and early March before the schedule eased later in the month.

Saturday, Virginia was involved in another nail-biter against ACC foe North Carolina. And the hot streak continued, as the Cavaliers got a late goal from Dox Aitken to down the Tar Heels 11-10 and clinch the top overall seed for the ACC Tournament.

Michael Kraus scored five goals and added an assist to lead the Cavaliers to the victory.

North Carolina got out to a fast start, scoring three of the first four goals. Nicky Solomon had a hat trick in the first half, giving the Tar Heels a 5-2 lead late in the second quarter.

Virginia seized the momentum in third quarter with a three-goal run aided by two from Kraus. The Cavaliers took the 7-6 lead entering the fourth quarter.

The Tar Heels answered with three goals of their own, coming from Brian Cameron, Matt Gavin and Timmy Kelly, to take a 9-7 lead with 11:16 left.

Matt Moore and Kraus combined for another Virginia three-goal streak to take a 10-9 lead with 8:45 left in the game. Kelly tied it back up on an unassisted goal with 6:35 remaining.

The teams traded chances before Dox Aitken got the game-winner with 1:34 left.

Duke Handles Notre Dame

Duke entered Saturday’s matchup with Notre Dame in desperate need of a conference win. The Blue Devils blew a fourth-quarter lead against Syracuse to open ACC play, and followed it with a close loss to North Carolina.

Coach John Danowski and his team needed a strong performance against the Irish — and they got one. Joe Robertson and Brad Smith each had hat tricks to lead the Blue Devils to a 14-8 victory over Notre Dame.

The Irish got hot in the first quarter, tallying three straight goals to lead 3-1 after the period. Duke took control shortly after, putting together a 6-2 second quarter to lead 7-5 at halftime. Robertson and Sean Lowrie each had two goals in the first half, while Connor Morin notched two goals and two assists for Notre Dame.

Lowrie and Garrett Leadmon added to the Duke lead out of halftime. After a Morin goal, the Blue Devils went on a five-goal rally to put the game away. Smith and CJ Carpenter had two goals a piece during the late run.

Villanova Hands Denver First Big East Regular Season Loss

Villanova is turning a corner, and another top 20 upset provides a benchmark for its progress in 2019. 

Traveling to Denver for a Big East matchup was no easy task, but Villanova was up to the challenge. The Wildcats got 19 saves from Will Vitton to overshadow discrepancies in shots and faceoff wins and hold on for the 12-11 win over the Pioneers.

After Ellis Gets kicked off the game with a Denver goal, Villanova rallied off four straight to take a 4-1 lead at the end of the first quarter. Keegan Khan had a goal and two assists in the quarter.

Austin French, Ethan Walker and Jack Hannah combined for a 3-2 second quarter to keep Villanova close at halftime. 

Denver continued to press the Wildcats defense, getting within a goal at 7-6, 8-7, 11-10 and 12-11. However, the Pioneers could not find a game-tying goal in the second half.

After 7-6, it was Patrick Daly scoring for the Wildcats. Minutes later, it was Khan who pushed the lead back to two goals. In the fourth quarter Corey McManus answered when Denver cut it to 11-10.

But the Pioneers fought back and had a chance to tie the game on the last possession. Vitton was there again to make a save on an Ellis Geis shot to seal the game.

Villanova survived despite losing 20 of 27 faceoffs.

Loyola Takes Care of Lehigh

Pat Spencer made it two straight games with 10 or more points in a 15-9 win over Lehigh at Ridley. Read more about the big win in Patrick Stevens’ recap coming soon.

Maryland Bounces Back

Jared Bernhardt and Logan Wisnauskas combined for 10 goals and six assists to lead Maryland to the 16-12 victory of Michigan to move to 1-1 in the Big Ten.

After a tight 3-3 first quarter, the Terps put a whopping seven goals in the second quarter to lead 10-4. Bernhardt and Wisnauskas combined to score the final four goals of the first half.

Michigan wasn’t done, however. The Wolverines scored five of six goals in the third quarter to cut the deficit to 11-9. Decker Curran had two goals during the rally.

Bernhardt had two goals, and Wisnauskas another, to start the fourth quarter in Maryland’s favor and pull away. 

Gray Big in Boston U Upset

Boston U used a fourth-quarter run to pull past No. 15 Army 15-13 in a big Patriot League game. Chris Gray scored twice and added four assists to lead the Terriers’ effort, while Jake Cates had four goals and two assists.

After a 3-3 first quarter, Army caught fire in the second period, scoring five out of six goals. Liam Davenport had two goals in the quarter to fuel the Black Knights’ 8-4 halftime lead.

Boston U found its offense in the second half, scoring the first six goals of the third quarter. Chris Gray and James Burr each had two goals in a run that gave the Terriers a 10-8 lead.

Brendan Nichtern and Nate Jones scored to pull Army to the 10-10 tie late in the third quarter. But Boston U put together another run, scoring four times over the course of 10 minutes to take hold of the game. Jake Cates had a hat trick to lead the game-ending run.

McIntosh Wins it for Hofstra

Ryan Tierney had six goals and two assists, the last of which went to Dylan McIntosh, who scored the game-winning goal in overtime to seal Hofstra’s 10-9 victory over No. 17 UMass in a CAA battle.

Isaac Paparo had two goals for UMass in the first half, allowing the Minutemen to lead 3-2 after one quarter and 6-4 at halftime. Tierney also had two goals in the first half to go along with an assist.

After Hofstra tied the game at 6-6, Devin Spencer and Chris Connolly scored and assisted on goals to give UMass the 8-6 lead late in the third quarter.

The teams traded goals before Jimmy Yanes and Ryan Tierney scored consecutive goals in the final four minutes to tie the game at 9-9 and send it to overtime.

McIntosh scored the game-winner 1:28 into the overtime period. Robert Casey had 16 saves to lead the Hofstra effort.

Johns Hopkins Picks Up Big Ten Win

Freshman Joey Epstein dropped five goals and three assist to lead Johns Hopkins to the 15-13 win over a surging Rutgers team. More from Patrick Stevens later tonight.

Yale Hits Season-High

Yale used a big second and third quarter to cruise to a season-high in goals in a 20-8 victory over Dartmouth. Jackson Morrill (six points), Matt Brandau and Matt Gaudet each had at least three goals to lead the Bulldogs to the win.

Up 7-6 in the second quarter, Yale went on a run of 12 out of 13 goals to take control of the game in the second half. TD Ierlan won 23 of 24 faceoffs to fuel the offensive performance.

Cornell Breezes Past Harvard

Clarke Petterson tallied his 100th career goal en route to Cornell’s 19-11 victory over Harvard on Saturday afternoon. Petterson had five goals and two assists, while Jeff Teat had five goals and three assists to fuel the Big Red performance.

Jake McCulloch scored twice to give Cornell the 4-3 lead after one quarter. The Big Red got hot in the second and third quarters, outscoring Harvard 9-4 to take control of the game.

Both Petterson and Teat had three goals in those two quarters alone, allowing the Big Red to pull away to the 12-5 lead. Chayse Ierlan made 14 saves for Cornell.

Other notable games:

  • Penn continues its hot streak through conference play, getting six goals from Adam Goldner to dominate Brown 16-9. The Quakers move to 4-0 in the Ivy League.

  • Asher Nolting put up a career-high six assists along with three goals to lead No. 18 High Point to the 13-9 victory over Air Force. 

  • Alex Woodall won 23 of 24 faceoffs to fuel Towson’s 14-7 victory over Fairfield to move to 2-0 in CAA play.

NIKE/US LACROSSE
DIVISION I MEN’S
TOP 20 SCOREBOARD

No. 2 Yale 20, Dartmouth 8
No. 3 Loyola 15, No. 14 Lehigh 9
No. 4 Maryland 16, Michigan 12
No. 5 Virginia 11, No. 19 North Carolina 10
No. 8 Duke 14, No. 7 Notre Dame 8
Villanova 12, No. 9 Denver 11
No. 10 Penn 16, Brown 9
No. 11 Cornell 19, Harvard 11
No. 12 Towson 14, Fairfield 7
Boston U 15, No. 15 Army 13
No. 20 Johns Hopkins 15, No. 16 Rutgers 13
Hofstra 10, No. 17 UMass 9 (OT)
No. 18 High Point 13, Air Force 9

OTHER SCORES

Richmond 14, Jacksonville 8
Delaware 15, Drexel 13
Navy 16, Colgate 11
Detroit Mercy 10, Manhattan 5
Sacred Heart 11, Bryant 8
Furman 15, Mercer 14
Cleveland State 18, St. Bonaventure 5
Holy Cross 16, Lafayette 4
UMBC 13, Binghamton 6
Georgetown 17, Providence 15
Bellarmine 13, VMI 12
Marquette 12, St. John's 8
Robert Morris 17, Wagner 6
Saint Joseph's 12, Hobart 11 (OT)
Mount St. Mary's 16, Utah 15
Hartford 14, UMass Lowell 11
NJIT 26, Hampton 9
Vermont 10, Albany 9
Canisius 10, Quinnipiac 7