Trailed closely by Blue Jay midfielder Benson Erwin, Virginia's Foster Gilbert sprinted from behind the Johns Hopkins net out to the left flank. He quickly turned his head back toward the goal and fired a well-placed shot into the top right corner of the net to give the No. 17 Cavaliers (3-4) a 9-8 upset win over the top-ranked Johns Hopkins (5-1) men's lacrosse team Saturday night.
"I just knew if I got to the corner and was able to turn my hips and get a shot off, then hopefully it would go," Gilbert said.
The game-winning goal came just 30 seconds after Hopkins had a prime scoring chance of its own. Hopkins' leading scorer Conor Ford received a pass 10 feet in front of Tillman Johnson and the Virginia goal, but his quick release was rebuffed by Johnson.
"I was just trying to follow the ball," Johnson said of the shot. Ford "caught it and put it right below my legs and followed it all the way. It's just one of those things -- in overtime, as a senior, I felt like it was my role to stop that ball. That's a leadership role and a big-time stop right there."
Johnson's overtime stuff was his eighth save of the game, and he and the rest of the Cavalier defense managed to hold Johns Hopkins scoreless in the last 11:27 of the fourth quarter. Additionally, Hopkins' top-three scorers -- Ford, Kyle Barrie and Matt Rewkowski -- collectively were held to just one goal and one assist.
Senior defender Brett Hughes hounded Barrie all evening and held him scoreless. Barrie, a reigning first-team All-American, entered the game with a 31-game consecutive scoring streak and had netted nine goals in his previous three contests. This shut-down defense was made possible largely thanks to Virginia's ability to slow down the Blue Jays' up-tempo, high-scoring offense that had been averaging more than 14 goals per game.
"We definitely wanted to maintain control of the pace of the game," Virginia coach Dom Starsia said. "We were asking a lot of Culver and Holmes. They were up on the wings of all the faceoffs and were covering Harrison and Rewkowski."
Faceoffs were a principle concern for the Cavaliers, as sophomore Jack deVilliers had won only 48.7 percent of his draws this season while his Hopkins counterpart, Greg Peyser, led the nation with an 81.6 percent success rate. However, deVilliers held his own Saturday night, winning nine of 20 faceoffs on the night.
Sophomore midfielder Kyle Dixon scored the game's first two goals, and junior attackman Joe Yevoli added two goals and an assist to help pace the Virginia offense. Freshman defenseman Ricky Smith incurred four of Virginia's six penalties, but the Cavaliers held strong while a man down, not allowing an extra-man goal.
But it was Gilbert, the unlikely hero, who ultimately proved to be the story of the night. He entered the game with one career goal on 15 shots in his one and a half seasons as a Cavalier midfielder. But, with John Christmas hampered by injury, Gilbert was given the chance to return to his high school position of attack and made the most of it, scoring two goals and adding an assist. His first career goal came on his first collegiate shot in last season's opening game, but his third career goal will likely prove more memorable for the 4,910 fans, who were at Klockner Saturday night.
With the upset win, Virginia is now riding a two-game winning streak as it is set to begin the conference portion of its schedule Saturday.
"This is the turn-around of the season," Dixon said. "We're the team we always knew we could be right now"
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