Division I Men :      March 31, 2001 [ The Game Story]
Virginia 7 Maryland 2 Scoring: Scoring: Conor Gill Hanley Holcomb Justin Mullen Chris Rotelli Aj Shannon Ian Shure David Jenkins (0, 4) (2, 0) (2, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) (0, 1) Andrew Combs Daniel Lamonica (1, 0) (1, 0) Saves: Saves: Tillman Johnson 16  (0.889) Pat Mcginnis 13  (0.650) Current Record :     (4-3) Current Record :     (7-1) Team Page For 2001 Team Page For 2001       The Game Story:

Tillman Johnson continued to stay hot from his performance at Hopkins to lead the #7 Cavaliers over #1 Maryland. Virginia continued to be giant killers as they have defeated the past five teams that have come to Charlottesville ranked #1. Maryland struggled with shot selection and placement all day and the good ones Johnson ate up. Coach Starsia said of Johnson, “This is the Tillman Johnson we have been seeing almost everyday since September.”

Virginia started strong, as senior captain Dave Jenkins said, “We came out flying.” Ian Shure had his bell rung early and Justin Mullen replaced him then had the first goal. He caught a cross crease feed from Conor Gill with a flag down. UVA scored again two minutes later when Chris Rotelli drove right and shot. McGinnis didn’t see it at all. Virginia’s next goal came in an extra-man situation when Hanley Holcomb stepped through a stick check and fired one top right. Virginia’s final score of the quarter came when Holcomb again unleashed a bullet that stung the top right corner. The assist went to Gill who showed his great field vision finding Holcomb almost 18 yards away.

The second quarter was quiet offensively. Virginia scored a minute into it when Mullen caught another feed from Gill about 3 yards out of the crease and scored. Maryland did manage to get off 10 shots in the quarter but Johnson made some amazing saves. Alex Poole had a solid bounce shot from 15 yards out…save. Mike Mollot ripped one high and hard…save. Mollot again with a point blank shot…save. Johnson did say, “I was seeing the ball real well early. I was on top of my game today.”

The third quarter was again quiet offensively. Maryland did finally get on the board six minutes into it as Dan LaMonica scored unassisted. Virginia answered seven seconds later as Jenkins won the face-off and fed Ian Shure, who had returned to the game at the half. Maryland was not taking good shots and the ones they did put on cage Johnson got to.

Johnson started off the fourth quarter with some more big saves. Again, it was Mollot trying to dodge from behind and was stuffed. Then Combs put one in Johnson’s stomach. Each team eventually managed to score once more. Canadian A.J. Shannon caught a nice look from Gill and found the back of the net to give Virginia their final goal. Maryland got their second with 26 seconds left. Buggs Combs caught a deflected feed from Chris Malone and scored but as the Virginia band chanted, “It just doesn’t matter.”

In a great show of gratitude, all Virginia players stayed over 30 minutes after the game and signed free posters for the fans. Johnson said, “This game shows we can play with anybody. This is a big confidence boost.” Maryland Head Coach Dick Edell felt his team would bounce back strong from this loss, “We believe in our offensive system, we believe in our defensive system and we believe in our kids. We are going to do a better job next week.”