The top-ranked Virginia men's lacrosse team bolstered their argument for No. 1 after cruising to a 10-2 victory over No. 16 Towson Tigers Sunday afternoon at Klockner Stadium.
Senior midfielder Billy Glading led all scorers with three goals, including a textbook clear that resulted in the Cavaliers' final score of the day. Goalie Tillman Johnson made a save and a heads-up pass to the streaking Glading immediately. Glading, who knew that his man might be apt to watch his shot rather than automatically get back on defense, took the ball from Virginia's own box all the way down the field. On the ensuing four-on-three situation, he dished the ball to point attackman freshman Matt Ward and bounced the ball in on the give-and-go to put an exclamation mark on the game.
"I was just trying to get up the field as fast as I could," Glading said. "I tried to hit the point man which I did and Matt [Ward] just made a great look back to me."
The real story of the day came on the defensive side of the field, led by Johnson. Coming into the game one save short of reaching the top ten all-time list for Virginia goalies, the junior from Annapolis, Md. blocked 15 Tiger shots to notch 378 career saves.
Johnson and the Cavalier defense worked hand in hand on Sunday, giving Towson attackmen nothing but frustrating stick checks and suffocating pressure. Although blessed with several early opportunities to take the lead, Towson (1-3) failed to capitalize, hitting two posts, missing a point blank put-in on the crease, and getting stuffed from the same spot in the first 7:12.
Heading into the season as the sole Division I goalie named as a candidate for the Tewaaraton Trophy, the award for player of the year in college lacrosse, Johnson was expected to dominate in his third season as a starter.
Although playing solidly through the first four games of this year, Johnson had not turned out a performance that justified his early season accolades until the Towson victory. He gave up 15 goals in the one point victory at Syracuse on March 1, nearly five and a half more than his season average of 9.53. In the next two contests, he responded by shutting the door on perennial power Princeton with seven goals allowed, and eight goals against then No. 9 Notre Dame.
"I think this is my breakout game," Johnson declared. "I feel like I played decent all year so far, but I haven't played a game like this where I felt like I controlled the game."
Virginia coach Dom Starsia had more to say about his All-American keeper.
"He's been our best player since the first day of practice, and he's been a little bit frustrated because he hasn't felt like he's played like that [against Towson] yet this season," said Starsia. "We beat Syracuse on the road, we beat Princeton on the road...you're not doing that without terrific goalie play."
Virginia (5-0) has had an exceptional season, considering that they have defended their No. 1 ranking against some of the best the nation has to offer. Following this Saturday's matchup with Johns Hopkins, the Cavaliers will have had a taste of all of their fellow 2002 Final Four participants. The matchups against Notre Dame and Towson combine with Syracuse, Princeton and Hopkins to make Virginia's schedule extremely unique, seeing as they will have played all of the Final Four teams from the last two years combined.
"There's not a lot of teams at our level that are having a week like this," Starsia noted. "You're playing really and truly three top ten, top 12 teams in the same week. You've only got so much gas in the tank, so I give my guys a lot of credit for really just battling through this one and getting the 'W' against a really good team."
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