The Virginia men’s lacrosse team made history at Klöckner Stadium during a 10-9 victory Saturday against Maryland. After clawing their way back from a three point deficit and leveling the score at 9-9 with 4:39 left to play in regulation, it took an NCAA record seven sudden-death overtimes for the Cavaliers to edge the Terrapins.
“It was definitely a moment I’m always going to remember — we came together, we played really hard at the end,” senior attackman Danny Glading said. “It’s good to come away with a win here. It’s too bad there has to be a loser. I’m happy — very happy — that it wasn’t us.”
Sophomore goalkeeper Adam Ghitelman, who racked up 22 saves on the day, six of which were in the extra periods, was especially impressive as the game continued.
“There are six guys out there on defense and we knew we weren’t going to lose this game,” Ghitelman said. “It was just a matter of time until the offense scored.”
One of the more dramatic saves of the game, though, came from junior goalkeeper Mark Wade. Wade got a chance between the pipes for Virginia when Ghitelman had to serve a one-minute penalty at the beginning of the second overtime after committing a goal-saving illegal body check. After warming up during the two minutes between the first and second overtime period, Wade had to anchor his short-manned defense for 60 seconds until Ghitelman could return to the game. After working the ball around for a good fraction of the penalty, Wade stopped a bounce shot heading toward the lower-right corner of the cage. Wade got net on the ball and had to dive to try to keep it in his stick.
“He is an unbelievable goalie,” Ghitelman said. “He could start for any team in the country. Every time he seems to go out there he’s playing man down. He’s got some experience for that I guess and he just made the big play.”
After Wade came up with the save, Virginia managed a clear to its offensive zone and ran off the penalty. Ghitelman returned to the game and Wade left with his job accomplished and the game saved.
“You get in a situation like that and your teammates are playing as hard as they can and you just want to help them,” Wade said. “You just want to do your best when you get the chance to.”
Even as Ghitelman made save after save to keep the Cavaliers’ hopes of victory alive, though, Virginia’s offense struggled to find its rhythm.
Hampered by the muddy and rainy conditions, both teams slowly began to show signs of fatigue as unforced offensive turnovers kept the game level at 9-9.
“If we had lost this game today,” Virginia coach Dom Starsia said, “I would have been telling you that our effort in the first half was not what w\e would have wanted.”
The normally high powered Virginia offense found itself in a stalemate after the first half. The 3-2 halftime score favored the Cavaliers only after freshman attackman Steele Stanwick’s shot beat the clock by two seconds going into the break.
A workman-like offensive effort from the Cavaliers continued for the next 24 and a half minutes, as Virginia found itself down 9-6 with only 5:41 left to play in the game.
“I thought that there was enough game left and they didn’t pull far enough away from us,” Starsia said.
As the game wound down and the Cavaliers found themselves in a crunch, Stanwick ignited a comeback that consisted of three goals in less than two minutes. Glading contributed a goal as well, and the game-tying score came from junior midfielder Brian Carroll.
The offensive burst Virginia took advantage of in the waning minutes of regulation, though, fizzled during the six tense and sloppy overtime periods that followed.
Finally, after more than an hour of overtime play, Carroll ended the epic contest one minute into the seventh extra period.
“I’ve had a few left handed goals this year — all of them on the run,” Carroll said. “The alley was open and they had a guy standing there who didn’t end up sliding so I decided to take a shot.”
With a left-handed shot on the run from about 15 yards, Carroll fired the ball past the Maryland goalie for the third game-winning goal of his career, a new Virginia record.
“I heard them say this was the longest game ever,” Carroll said. “We would have kept going, however long it took.”
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