Division I Men :      March 14, 2000 [ The Game Story]
Rutgers 8 Virginia 17 Scoring: Scoring: Keith Cromwell Mike Mclaughlin Scott Oliver Jason Brown Zach Gilbert Steve Snider Tim Horgan Nick Schmidt (2, 3) (1, 2) (1, 0) (0, 1) (1, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) Drew Mcknight Conor Gill Ian Shure Aj Shannon Jason Hard Derrick Preuss David Bruce Aaron Vercollone Jay Jalbert Jamison Mullen Bruce Townsend (3, 4) (1, 3) (3, 0) (2, 1) (2, 0) (2, 0) (2, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) (0, 1) (0, 1) Saves: Saves: John Martino 22  (0.595) Derek Kenney Ben O'neil 6  (0.462) 2  (0.667) Current Record :     (1-2) Current Record :     (2-1) Team Page For 2000 Team Page For 2000       The Game Story:

The game started out slow as the first goal didn't come until the 11:11 mark when Scarlet Knight Nick Schmidt put a low bounce shot past UVA goalie Derek Kenney. Drew Mcknight answered at 9:15 and Virginia would react to Rutgers goals like that all day. Every time the Knights scored the Cavaliers would come right back as if realizing that it was a game they could actually lose. Rutgers went back on the attack and Keith Cromwell ripped a shot high and wide so Ryan Curtis punished him by flattening him after the shot. They call that setting the tone. Although the Cavaliers killed off the penalty shortly after they were in disarray and Steve Snider made them pay to put Rutgers up 2-1. Jason Hard came back for Virginia and caught a pass from behind the net to bury one from five yards out. Conor Gill was the last man in a fast break rotation and placed one nicely in the upper right hand corner to then go up by one. Rutgers wasn't going to roll over just yet and on a fast break Mike McLaughlin had the ball checked from his stick, but it rolled right to Cromwell who shot one low to come back within one.

The Knights started the second quarter down two men due to penalties, but with a John Martino stuffing of Drew Mcknight and good hustle they killed it and then went on to tie it 4-4. Jason Brown found Cromwell all alone on the back side as he snuck around the goal from behind and put it away. Virginia stormed down and Ian Shure put his team back up with a lefty curl around the cage from behind. Next McKnight found himself playing against a shortstick on a delayed penalty which is like waving a T-Bone in front of a starving pit bull. He just backed in and lasered one high. Virginia got the next two goals to take a commanding 8-4 lead and if it wasn't for outsatnding play by John Martino as well as a couple of pipes it coud've been much worse. The half ended 10-5.

The third quarter was 3-0 in favor of Virginia and that was the game for the most part. Rutgers got a couple of 4th quarter goals, but the Virginia team played well enough to win and not much better. Keith Cromwell and John Martino had outstanding games, but the entire starting team for Virginia was on that same level of talent. Drew Mcknight had the biggest offensive day for Virginia with 3 goals and 4 assists