M Lax Wins Epic Battle Against Maryland
Saturday, March 28 2009 by Tim
The #1 Virginia Men’s Lacrosse team played what may have been its most inconsistent, least productive 55 minutes of the season to start the game against #9 Maryland. With five minutes remaining in the game, the Cavaliers trailed the Terrapins by what was starting to look like a very daunting 6-9 margin. The Cavaliers had thrown the ball away what seemed like dozens of times. They had dropped the ball too easily when pressured even slightly by the Terrapin defenders. Goalie Adam Ghitelman had looked shaky at best.
What followed was something that no one – in the stands or in all of lacrosse fandom – could have predicted. Beginning with a goal by outstanding freshman Steele Stanwick with 5:43 remaining, the Cavaliers would score three consecutive goals in just 62 seconds to tie the game. Danny Glading and Brian Carroll notched the other two goals during that stretch. Neither team would score for the rest of regulation, sending the game to sudden death overtime.
But the excitement wasn’t over yet.
Virginia and Maryland would battle scoreless through more than six full overtimes, turning this dreary Saturday game into what is believed to be the longest Division I men’s lacrosse game ever. Each of the first six overtime periods featured at least one possession by both teams, and usually more. The sloppy play from regulation would continue in overtime with both teams throwing the ball away as often as they were getting clean shots.
In the second overtime, Virginia goalie Adam Ghitelman was penalized for what looked to me like a nice solid hit on a Maryland player who was about to take a shot right on the doorstep. That put Virginia in a VERY difficult situation, having to go both man-down and with backup goalie Mark Wade having to come in practically ice cold and face the EMO for Maryland. Wade had possibly the most exciting save of the game when he stopped a shot by Dan Groot and brought possession back to Virginia. The Cavaliers were able to run out the penalty and bring Ghitelman back in just seconds later.
Ghitelman himself would play out of his mind during the overtime periods, particularly in the later ones. He made several saves of hard shots in traffic as well as close shots where the player was practically standing over him. Those plays helped the Cavaliers overcome some very bad situations Virginia found itself in because of turnovers and generally sloppy play.
Finally, one minute into the seventh overtime period, Brian Carroll scored unassisted to give the Cavaliers the win and finish an epic, exhausting battle at Klöckner stadium.
Virginia (11-0, 1-0 ACC) will now carry its number one ranking into a contest with North Carolina next Saturday at noon. That game is part of the Big City Classic and will be played at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.
Check back for some pictures from the game.
3 comment(s) and 0 trackback(s)
I figure the Maryland fan sites can cover that point all they want. But since you asked...
After speaking to some folks who were sitting behind and to the left of the Maryland bench (and thus were looking across the Maryland bench towards the play), I'm not convinced that Maryland didn't call for the timeout. I wasn't watching the bench, so I can't say myself, but some people have told me that the Maryland coaches started to signal for a TO as soon as the player crossed the clear line.
To top that off, I've heard that both coaches told the refs that whoever won the faceoff would be calling a timeout immediately and they should be watching for it. In that case, if the refs saw even one motion similar to calling for a timeout out of the Maryland coaches, you can't really blame them for blowing the whistle.
To go even further, the whistle was CLEARLY before the shot. Not just before the shot went in, but before the shot. For all we know, AG didn't make the save because he slowed down because of the whistle. He made a ton of other great saves in OT, no reason to think he doesn't make that one if the whistle doesn't blow. Bottom line is that you just can't know.
If we want to get into those kind of things, Maryland's 5th goal was also VERY questionable. Never touched the nylon. Hit two pipes, I believe. I'm not convinced that it actually crossed the line. It didn't look like it crossed to me live and the replay didn't show me anything to make me think otherwise. I'll admit I didn't have a great angle on it, but I'm not the only person making that claim. If that shot doesn't go in, theoretically, the game is different and maybe even doesn't go to the first OT and the whistle.
Fair points. I was not trying to argue that the goal should have counted (especially being a UVa fan), but it was odd and added to the intensity of the game. Unfortunately, the camera job by ESPN was not that great, so they did not have any view of the sideline and whether or not someone called timeout. As a matter of fact, more than once the central camera man lost track of the players on a fast break and I had to watch a goal on instant replay because they missed it live. Regardless, I was happy to actually see it and all around the whole thing was very enjoyable.
Being in California, I do not get to see many lacrosse games, so the fact it was on ESPN2 was a plus. However ... and not to put a downer on the 7 over time win ... you forgot to mention that in the first overtime, Maryland scored in the first 10 seconds, but it was called off by an inadvertent whistle. Apparently, the ref thought (incorrectly) the Maryland coach called a time out and blew the whistle about 2 seconds before the Maryland player scored. The refs made other mistakes as well, but fortunately the players on the field more than made up for it by playing hard (even though a bit sloppy) in all 7 over times. Ghitelman was the man and Stanwick played well.