Hoos Handle Hopkins

Rhamel Bratton joined two other Cavaliers – Matt White and Shamel Bratton – with three goals against Hopkins.

When you have as many weapons offensively as the Virginia men’s lacrosse team, the secret to success is truly an elementary concept: share. On Saturday, the Cavaliers showed just how dangerous they can be by being patient and unselfish on offense in a 15-6 demolition of visiting Johns Hopkins. In the end, the Hoos had three players with hat tricks and eight different players in the scoring column thanks to 8 assists on the day.

For UVa coach Dom Starsia, that’s the way to become a successful team.

“We always feel that way. As long as we’re not stubborn and holding the ball too much, [we can be successful]. … I thought we did a nice job sharing the ball and moving it around,” Starsia said. “That’s who we want to be as an offensive lacrosse team.”

The Cavaliers’ propensity to move the ball quickly and effectively played a huge role against the Blue Jays. After all, Hopkins plays an aggressive and scrambling style of defense that puts a lot of pressure on opponents, particularly if anyone tries to take on the defense individually. At times Saturday, Johns Hopkins doubled the ball heavily and then scrambled behind the double team to cover any openings.

That’s where the precision passing – 8 assists on 15 goals – came into focus. The Hoos’ methodic approach and crisp passing eventually took a toll on the Johns Hopkins’ defense, leading to a dominant afternoon of lacrosse. Shamel and Rhamel Bratton along with Matt White each posted a trio of goals on the day while Brian Carroll (2), Chris Bocklet (1), George Huguely (1), Colin Briggs (1) and Nick O’Reilly (1) all moved the netting as well.

“Their defense is a team that scrambles and slides. They make it known who they’re going to slide to,” Shamel Bratton said. “We’ve got some big-time middies – if they’re going to slide, it’s not too easy to get your shot off on just the first dodge – so we did a good job of moving the ball and getting passes on the sticks so we could get some shots.”

Brian Carroll posted two goals and three assists in the win against Johns Hopkins.

Among the highlights for the Cavalier offense:

George Huguely attacked from behind the cage and found Matt White sitting down in front of the crease for a quick-stick shot and goal at 9:31 of the first quarter. UVa led 3-0.

At the 7:35 mark of the second quarter, a high-low passing combination led to a goal for the Hoos. Shamel Bratton found Chris Bocklet cutting from behind the cage; Bocklet squeezed one past the keeper for 5-4 Hoos lead.

Brian Carroll scored on a pair of right-handed shots from near the top of the box. The first came on an extra-man opportunity at 11:59 of the third quarter when he took advantage of a Steele Stanwick assist. The second one featured a double crow-hop that resulted in a high-speed shot at 3:41 in the third that led to a 10-5 lead and Hopkins’ change at goalkeeper.

Rhamel Bratton scored from near the box line up front on what typically is a reset or reversal pass from Carroll. He just stepped in a ripped one into the cage for a 6-4 UVa lead in the second period. Bratton caught the defense slightly relaxed again as the lines changed following a faceoff and suddenly ripped a shot past the keeper’s ear for the 9-4 lead at 11:35 of the third quarter as well.

Shamel Bratton put home a pair of crowd-pleasing goals as well. The first came in the waning seconds of the third quarter when he took a quick outlet pass from Adam Ghitelman. Bratton covered the distance from box to box in less than a dozen seconds and uncorked a shot from the right side to beat the quarter buzzer (1.0 remained). Near the start of the fourth quarter, the afternoon’s passing prowess was on display as Rhamel Bratton drew the defense to the left before dumping the ball back to Carroll near the top of the box. Carroll made the extra pass to the right wing where Shamel Bratton fired a searing left-handed shot to give UVa a 13-5 edge.

“I think we’ve been pretty efficient offensively. We’re a team that takes a lot of shots, but I don’t feel like we take a lot of bad shots. Sometimes our discipline might break down a little bit, but I thought overall we had good balance on offense,” Starsia said. “That’s who we want to be at that end of the field. We’re always going to be aggressive and when we’re playing with a little bit of discipline and some patience on offense, we can usually generate a pretty good opportunity and that’s our goal every time down.”

While the offense clicked repeatedly Saturday, there’s plenty of praise to go around on the nation’s top-ranked team. Take the defense for example. The Cavaliers have consistently given opponents trouble this season with their strong play on the defensive end. Saturday’s game against No. 12 Johns Hopkins continued the trend.

Other than a two-minute stretch where Hopkins cranked out three goals in the second quarter, the Cavalier defense had things locked up throughout the day. The Blue Jays scored just once in the first quarter (a goal in the final seconds) and couldn’t produce much outside of the two-minute barrage despite dominating the faceoffs 6-2 in the second period. After halftime, nothing improved for the visitors as they scored just one goal in the game’s final 30 minutes.

UVa defenseman Ken Clausen said the Hoos didn’t execute as well during Johns Hopkins’ most successful spurt in the second quarter, but kept things in check otherwise.

“I don’t think it was anything in particular, I just think we needed to communicate more on defense. I think it was just a lack of sticking with our game plan and they took advantage of it,” Clausen said. “I think once we kind of buckled down and figured out how we wanted to play, we settled down from there.”

Perhaps, the biggest key for the D was the ability to deal with Hop’s ball screens, both from high in front of the goal and from behind the cage as well.

“They do a lot of ball screens. Out of the one-four, they’re always picking in and they’re always screening,” Clausen said. “They have a bunch of really good shooters and I think they’re really trying to get their hands free and see what they can do. I think we had to be really conscious of the picks and communicate out there. I think that’s where we got caught up a little bit with the lack of communication. If we talked and knew when those picks were coming to either switch or get through those picks, that’s when we started playing well.”