Johns Hopkins Athletics
Patrick McIntosh Powers No. 1 Virginia to 18-13 Victory at Johns Hopkins
With leading scorer Payton Cormier sidelined with a lower body injury, the Cavaliers needed someone to step up on the attack line as they faced a top 10 opponent on the road. After putting up a career-best five points on three goals and two assists on Saturday, Patrick McIntosh earned his first-career start and made the most of it, putting up a career-high six goals to power the No. 1-ranked Virginia men's lacrosse team to an 18-13 victory at Johns Hopkins on Tuesday evening at the historic Homewood Field in Baltimore.
Griffin Schutz opened up the scoring for the Cavaliers by using his size to back down his defender before firing a quick righty shot that found the back of the net. Petey LaSalla won the first three faceoffs of the game and went on to finish the game 22/33 from the x, giving UVA a healthy possession advantage. On the defensive side, the Cavaliers dominated early, forcing three turnovers and low-percentage shots for the Blue Jays. Matthew Nunes made three early saves as Johns Hopkins went scoreless in the opening period. Behind two goals each from Schutz and Patrick McIntosh, Virginia took a 5-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
To open the second quarter, Xander Dickson scored to continue the Virginia dominance before Johns Hopkins fired back with three goals to cut the lead to three. Dickson ended the Blue Jay run and revived the Cavaliers with a goal in which he made his defender fall with a quick turn behind the goal before finishing.
Dickson went on to finish the game with six goals, as the third different Cavalier to have six points in the game. The two teams then exchanged goals twice in quick succession to make the score 9-5.
As the first half closed, Schutz scored his fourth of the game with a bouncer shot off the feed from Jeff Conner with four seconds left to give Virginia a 10-5 lead, a lead which would have been greater if it wasn't for eight saves from Johns Hopkins goalie Tim Marcille. LaSalla went 13/17 from the faceoff x in the first half and the Cavaliers had a 27-8 advantage in ground balls.
The third quarter featured back-and-forth scoring to start which began with Garrett Degnon scoring for Johns Hopkins before Connor Shellenberger found a cutting Dickson for a goal. Shellenberger, despite having a quiet day, demonstrated his patience and unselfishness as he finished the game with three assists.
In response, the Blue Jays fired back with a 4-1 run to make the score 13-10, partly attributed to Nunes struggling for the Cavaliers as he had not registered a save since the first quarter. Two of the goals came from Ian Krampf as momentum swung in favor of the Blue Jays.
McIntosh then responded with three straight goals, stretching into the start of the fourth quarter to put Virginia back up by six goals at 16-10. Nunes settled in and made five saves in the fourth quarter alone to help the Cavaliers regain control of the game.
The Blue Jays scored three goals in the fourth to hang around, but Xander Dickson added two more goals in the final two minutes of the game to solidify the 18-13 victory for Virginia.
Dickson finished with six goals on eight shots and Patrick McIntosh was even better with six goals on seven shots. Griffin Schutz recorded four goals and two assists. Thomas McConvey had one goal and three assists. Connor Shellenberger had zero goals, but contributed three assists. Shellenberger has scored just one goal over the last three games, but has put up eight assists over that stretch.
The victory was UVA's third-straight in the series with Johns Hopkins, as the Cavaliers retained possession of the Doyle Smith Cup.
Now 5-0 on the season, Virginia will host Towson on Saturday at 4pm at Klockner Stadium before entering a tough stretch of games which includes Maryland, Notre Dame, and Duke.
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