Led by hat tricks by AJ Fish and Greg Coholan, the #14 Virginia Cavaliers (1-1), cruised to a 14-7 win over the Drexel Dragons (0-1) Saturday afternoon at Vidas Field in Philadelphia.
Virginia was generating a bunch of scoring chances but the ball didn’t want to go in until 2:05 of the first when Zed Williams scored his first goal of the day. Cole Shafer would get the Dragons on the board with a laser at 6:55 to tie the game, but Greg Coholan would give the Cavs the lead 2-1 after the first quarter.
As the second quarter started so did the confidence of Virginia. Every time Drexel would score one goal, Virginia would score twice, but Drexel’s Hank Brown scored with 9.7 seconds left in the half to cut the score to 6-4, and the Dragons went into the locker room with a bit of momentum.
The momentum didn’t last long, as Virginia started to roll, scoring four straight, including two goals separated by eight seconds that increased their lead to 10-4. Drexel’s Jules Raucci and Marshall King would score the final two goals to go into the fourth quarter trailing 10-6.
Virginia would score four more times in the final quarter, including the last three to lead them to victory. This obviously was a game Virginia needed after losing their home opener last week to Loyola 11-4.
Defense was there to start for Drexel but as the game went on, Virginia controlled it on all sides.
Virginia won 16-25 draws, outshot Drexel 51-29, 46-25 ground balls, and only turned the ball over nine times to Drexel’s 15.
“Virginia is a great squad,” said Drexel assistant coach Chris Collins. “This is a team you can’t play catch up with.
Robert Frazee (2), Cole Shafer, Marshall King, Jules Raucci, Jacob O’Donnell and Hank Brown each netted a goal. Goaltender Jimmy Joe Granito had 17 saves in defeat along with some big ones in the beginning.
For Virginia, Greg Coholan and AJ Fish scored three goals apiece to pace the Cavs offense. Mike D’Amaro, Zed Williams scored twice, and single tallies by Joe French, Ryan Conrad, Ryan Lamb and Mikey Herring. Goaltender Matt Barrett picked up the win, and collected nine saves.
Barrett also was huge in the first half stopping some point blank shots by the Dragons.
