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“Boy, that was fun.”

Lars Tiffany opened the press conference following his first game as the head men’s lacrosse coach at the University of Virginia the same way he opened the press conference after his Brown team lost in overtime to Maryland in the NCAA semifinals last season. That wasn’t the only thing that was the same.

Virginia showcased Tiffany’s infamous high-octane offense and full-field aggressiveness from the first whistle, putting pressure on the Loyola offense and defense throughout the game. Just as expected, Virginia’s performance was reminiscent of the Brown teams of the last decade. 

The result: the No. 11 Cavaliers used a strong second quarter to establish a lead and continued to press the No. 4 Greyhounds, withstanding a fourth-quarter rally and upsetting the hosts 16-15 in a thrilling first game of the 2017 season for both teams that grabbed the attention of the lacrosse world in many ways, including by being the first college lacrosse game streamed live via Twitter.

There’s a lot for the Cavaliers to learn, but they have a wealth of talent and will live or die by the same formula Tiffany mastered with the Bears.

“What you saw today was the same philosophy from two teams, two very talented teams,” Tiffany said. “On the athletic forum, we push them. We let them be athletes. We let them fly up and down the field and express their athleticism and express their creativity and passion for this game.”

It was a new cast tasked with rising to the occasion for Tiffany, but the production was the same. Virginia got seven goals from a pair of underclassmen — freshman Dox Aitken (four goals) and sophomore Ryan Conrad (three goals), teammates on last summer’s Team USA squad that captured the FIL U19 World Championship.

Aitken made a nice impression in his first collegiate game.

“These are the types of games that we dream about,” Aitken said. “To have this in my first game, I couldn’t ask for a better scenario. It’s perfect.”
 

Aitken had two goals in the first half to help Virginia jump out to an 8-5 halftime lead. Joe French and Conrad added two goals out of the break to give the Cavaliers their biggest lead at 10-5.

Then, Loyola found its stride. Sophomore John Duffy scored twice on a five-goal rally that tied the game at 10-10 in the fourth quarter.

Virginia got a response in the form of consecutive goals from Aitken and Conrad to give it a 12-10 lead with 11:27 left in the game. 

The Cavaliers and Greyhounds went back-and-forth throughout the final minutes, until Zed Williams sent a behind-the-back pass to Conrad, who rifled a shot to the top right corner with 2:17 remaining — a slick play that proved to be the game-winner.

“It’s something that was stressed with Coach [Sean] Kirwan’s offense,” said Conrad. “We’ve been doing a lot of picks and trying to get through it. Loyola was being very aggressive on the picks. I would slip the picks, [Williams] came off and he threw a nifty little behind-the-back and I ended up stepping in and taking a good shot and it went in.”

Virginia goalie Will Railey made a handful of big saves in the second half to help his team maintain a lead, none bigger than a stop on Brian Sherlock with 1:14 remaining. Railey, who finished with 11 saves, made the start after incumbent goalie Matt Barrett was suspended for the 2017 season.

Loyola sophomore Alex McGovern, a transfer from North Carolina, led the Greyhounds with two goals and three assists, but sophomore All-American Pat Spencer, who tied a school record with 89 points last season, was held to just a pair of assists. Loyola goalies Jacob Stover and Grant Limone combined for just five saves.

PHOTO KEVIN P. TUCKER

Matt Rambo matched his career-high of six points in Maryland's 15-12 victory at Navy on Saturday.

Games of Note

Maryland 15, Navy 12

Maryland’s veteran attack unit allowed the No. 2 Terps to overcome a dismal faceoff performance in a 15-12 victory at Navy. Seniors Matt Rambo, Colin Heacock and Dylan Maltz combined for 15 points, with Rambo matching his career-high of six points (3g, 3a) and Maltz equaling his career best of four goals.

Rambo’s three assists came on three consecutive goals early in the third quarter after Navy had tied the game 6-6. That started a four-goal run that put the Terps up 10-6, and Navy never got closer than two goals the rest of the way. Maryland won its season opener for the 24th consecutive year.

Navy’s Brady Dove won 21 of 29 faceoffs, but Maryland junior goalie Dan Morris made 12 saves in his first career start to help keep the Mids at bay.

Navy, ranked No. 13 in the preseason after last year’s NCAA quarterfinal run, is now 0-2 for the season after falling to Johns Hopkins earlier in the week. The Mids have given up 30 goals in the two losses. Ryan Wade had four goals and three assists for Navy.

Denver 14, Air Force 6

Three goals in the final 17 seconds of the third quarter punctuated No. 1 Denver’s 14-6 win over an Air Force team that upset Duke last weekend. Senior All-American Connor Cannizzaro led the way with four goals and two assists and highly-touted freshman Ethan Walker added three goals and two assists in his collegiate debut. Walker’s five points were the most for a Denver rookie in his debut since 2008. Trevor Baptiste was dominant on faceoffs for Denver, winning 15-of-18, and Alex Ready made 10 saves while allowing just five goals.

Bucknell 9, Bryant 8

Connor O’Hara’s goal with 11 seconds remaining capped a brilliant performance and a Bucknell comeback in a 9-8 victory over Bryant. Bucknell (2-0) scored the final four goals of the game, including all three fourth quarter goals in the win. O’Hara had four goals in the victory, including three of the goals during the game-ending four goal stretch. Will Sands had four assists in the win, including helpers on all three Bucknell goals in the fourth quarter.

Johns Hopkins 15, UMBC 5

No. 6 Johns Hopkins (2-0) outscored UMBC 7-0 in the second quarter on its way to a 15-5 victory. Ten different Blue Jays scored in the game, led by Wilkins Dismuke with three goals for his second straight hat trick. Shack Stanwick added two goals and three assists.

Marist 12, Colgate 8

Marist 5-foot-7 senior attack JD Recor came up big with five goals and three assists as the Red Foxes surprised Colgate 12-8. With Marist leading 7-5 in the third quarter, Recor scored three straight goals in a span of just 93 seconds to allow the Red Foxes to take control. Gannon Morrison added four goals and two assists for Marist and Brian Corrigan made 12 saves in the win.

Monmouth 12, Villanova 10

Senior goalie Nick Hreshko made a career-best 15 saves as Monmouth upset No. 20 Villanova 12-10 for the Hawks first victory over a ranked opponent in school history. Tyler Keen led Monmouth with four goals, including a pair during a key 4-0 second half run. Jake Froccaro led Villanova with three, including back-to-back goals that pulled the Wildcats within 10-9 in the fourth quarter. Villanova outshot Monmouth 19-3 in the opening quarter and led 4-2 after that frame, but put just six of those 19 shots on goal.

North Carolina 7, Furman 3

No. 3 North Carolina allowed just one goal in the final 45 minutes of the game as Brian Balkam made 12 saves, just one off his career high, in a 7-3 win over Furman. Chris Cloutier and Justin Anderson each had two goals for UNC (2-0). Furman fell to 0-3 and will look for its first victory of the season when it travels to Baltimore next weekend for a game against Sacred Heart on William G. Tierney Field at US Lacrosse headquarters. That will be the first regular season NCAA game played at the new facility.

Richmond 15, Fairfield 3

Richmond shut out Fairfield in the second half in a surprisingly easy 15-3 victory in both teams’ opener. Neither team is ranked in the Nike/US Lacrosse preseason poll, but Fairfield was No. 20 in the USILA preseason coaches poll. Richmond senior goalie Benny Pugh made 15 saves, just two away from his own school record, to lead the Spiders while sophomore Teddy Hatfield had four goals and four assists.

Penn State 21, Hobart 15

Freshman Mac O’Keefe was one of four Penn State players with at least four goals and the No. 15 Nittany Lions (2-0) scored at least five goals in all four quarters of the game to win a 21-15 shootout over Hobart. O’Keefe, a member of the gold-medal winning U.S. U19 team last summer, now has 11 goals in his first two collegiate games.

Syracuse 19, Siena 6

Seniors Jordan Evans (3g, 5a) and Nick Mariano (3g, 4a) had career days, combining for 15 points as Syracuse rolled past Siena 19-6 in the Carrier Dome. The No. 8 Orange also got a boost from some fresh faces in Denver transfer Brendan Bomberry and sophomore Nate Solomon with four goals each. Bomberry, who led the nation with 11 man-up goals for Denver last year, had one man-up tally on Saturday. Solomon, a Georgia native who had 623 career point in his high school career, scored half as many goals on Saturday as he did in the entire 2016 campaign.

Other Scores

Army West Point 9, Massachusetts 2
Boston University 18, UMass-Lowell 8
Delaware 18, Mt. St. Mary’s 5
Lehigh 13, Jacksonville 12
Manhattan 14, Wagner 13 (3 ot)
Michigan 17, Lafayette 6
Ohio State 14, Detroit Mercy 8
Providence 10, Holy Cross 4
Robert Morris 10, Bellarmine 8
Rutgers 16, St. John’s 8