COLLEGE PARK, MD - Before every Easter celebration, first there is a Christmas. And in Saturday afternoon's game against the No. 5 Maryland Terrapins (6-2, 1-2 ACC), it was freshman John Christmas who gave life to the Virginia offense, scoring four goals and assisting on another as the No. 2 Cavaliers (6-1, 1-0) won their ACC season opener, 11-10, in front of 3,158 fans at Maryland's Byrd Stadium.
Virginia looked as if it was about to pull away from Maryland early in the third quarter. But penalties on Brenndan Mohler and Joe Yevoli left the Cavaliers at a two-man disadvantage. Maryland's offense, though, turned the ball over to junior long-stick midfielder Trey Whitty, who surged down the right side of the field before making a great cross-field pass to Christmas who rapidly found the back of the net to give Virginia an 8-4 lead and deal Maryland a demoralizing blow.
But the Terrapins were undeterred and scored four of the game's next five goals to narrow the gap to one goal. Three of those four were logged in extra-man situations. Penalties were almost the Cavaliers' undoing - after committing only one infraction against Johns Hopkins last Saturday, they received nine flags in Saturday's highly physical contest.
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"We didn't back down," junior midfielder Chris Rotelli said. "We tried to be physical back and got called for penalties some times." Maryland "tries to make their mark by being tough, but we're as tough or tougher."
And Virginia showed great mental toughness, too. With 25 seconds remaining in the game and down one goal, Maryland's leading scorer, Mike Mollot, lined up a potentially game-tying shot from 35 feet away. But the path to the net was clear, and Virginia sophomore goaltender Tillman Johnson saw it coming, stayed high with his stick, made the most important of his 11 saves, and then, equally important, collected the rebound, preventing a second scoring chance.
"It was a huge save," Johnson said. "I was just standing there trying to read the shot."
Virginia's offense split rather decisively between the two halves. In the first half, attackmen Yevoli and Christmas each had three goals whereas the second half boasted the scoring prowess of midfielders A.J. Shannon and Rotelli - they contributed three of the team's four second half goals. Both of Rotelli's goals came unassisted on seeing-eye lasers fired on the run in the fourth quarter, providing necessary insurance.
"The midfield played great all game," Rotelli said. "In the first half, we didn't have the ball very much so we tried not to press forward. But we attacked when we needed to and knocked down some shots."
The defense also deserves tremendous credit, especially because it was forced to play in man-down situations for long stretches.
"I thought [defenseman Mark] Koontz playing [Maryland attackman Dan] LaMonica behind the goal was the key to this game," coach Dom Starsia said. "They didn't hurt us from behind there."
Such circumstances limited Maryland's scoring opportunities and took some of the burden off Johnson, who recorded his fifth straight game with 10 or more saves.
A win is a win and Virginia is glad to have this one, even though penalties marred this match and it turned ugly at times.
"It was one of those games we were so pleased to get a win," Starsia said. "We didn't have our best week, I don't think. It's a long, hard run for our team, but you have to give them a lot of credit for coming up to Maryland and getting a win"
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