Virginia Shakes Slow Start, Rolls Over Air Force 21-11 in Season Opener

After a scoreless first quarter, the Cavaliers scored ten goals in the second en route to a ten-goal win over the Falcons

Matt Newton | Feb 5, 2022

The Virginia men's lacrosse "championship hangover" lasted all of 15 minutes.

After raising a banner commemorating the program's seventh NCAA national title pregame, the Cavaliers began their 2022 campaign rather unceremoniously, as the visiting Air Force Falcons held the Hoos scoreless and jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first quarter.

Virginia settled in after that, outscoring Air Force 17-3 over the next two quarters and rolling to a 21-11 victory in in the season-opener on Saturday afternoon at Klockner Stadium.

The main cause of UVA's slow start was a pair of faceoff violations by Petey LaSalla on the first two faceoffs of the game. Air Force scored two goals within a minute of each other to take a 2-0 lead five minutes in. The Cavaliers did not possess the ball much in the first quarter, but when they did, their possessions frequently ended without a quality shot on goal.

It was a less than ideal start for a team starting a true freshman in cage. In his first game stepping into the gigantic shoes of Alex Rode, Matthew Nunes certainly was not expecting to have his high-powered and experienced offense leaving him in an 0-3 hole to start his collegiate career. To his credit, Nunes settled in and made eight saves in the game.

After taking a punch in the mouth in the first quarter, the defending champs came to play in the second.

A little over thirty seconds into the second quarter, Connor Shellenberger found freshman Griffin Schutz for the first UVA goal of the season. 35 seconds later, Virginia scored again as Shellenberger passed to Xander Dickson for another goal.

Shellenberger, who is coming off of an outstanding redshirt freshman campaign in which he was named the NCAA Tournament's Most Outstanding Player, finished the season-opener with two goals and a career-high five assists.

Johns Hopkins transfer Evan Zinn then made an incredible play, catching Matt Moore's pass with one hand on his stick before firing a goal from the left wing to tie the game at three. Zinn finished his UVA debut with one goal and two assists.

Air Force weathered the initial storm and responded with a pair of goals by Brandon Dodd, who had four goals in the game.

Sophomore defenseman Ben Wayer put an end to Air Force's plans to reclaim control of the game, scoring a transition goal with a rocket of a long-pole shot. 40 seconds later, Virginia's ride forced an Air Force turnover and Jeff Conner quickly fed the ball up to a wide open Shellenberger, who scored easily to tally his first goal of the season and tie the game at 5-5.

Junior Payton Cormier, who led UVA in scoring with 45 goals last season, got on the board by turning a broken play into a goal on the right side of the crease to give Virginia its first lead of the game. Cormier had four goals in the game, three of which came in the third quarter.

With five minutes remaining in the first half, Matt Moore got involved, dodging from behind the cage and rolling inside for a diving goal.

Petey LaSalla reprised his role as the nation's best offensive faceoff specialist. He picked up a ground ball and then took it coast-to-coast for a goal. Then, with just seven seconds left in the first half, LaSalla initiated the offense from behind the cage, leaving his defender in the dust on a split-dodge and scoring to give Virginia a 10-6 halftime lead. LaSalla finished with two goals and he won 11 of his 18 faceoff draws.

All together, UVA outscored Air Force 10-3 in the second quarter. The third quarter was even better for the No. 1 team in the nation.

The Virginia defense shut out Air Force in the third and held the Falcons to just three shots in the period. UVA's ten-man ride was smothering. Air Force was 14/27 on clears and the Falcons had 17 turnovers in the game.

Meanwhile, Virginia's offense kept producing. Xander Dickson and Payton Cormier scored three goals apiece Connor Shellenberger added his second goal, as UVA outscored Air Force 7-0 in the third quarter. Dickson finished with four goals on a hyper-efficient six shots.

UVA outshot Air Force 51-31 and shots on goal were 35-19 in favor of the Cavaliers. Virginia's starters rested for the majority of the fourth quarter and the Cavaliers cruised to the 21-11 victory.

Up next, Virginia hosts High Point next Sunday (2/13) at 3pm at Klockner Stadium.

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