Men's Lacrosse Cruises Past VMI

Sunday, February 21

West Point, N.Y.

12 PM

Army West Point

2-1

Virginia Military Institute

0-2

VMI

Army West Point

Men's Lacrosse Cruises Past VMI

February 21, 2016 | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Army men's lacrosse team scored the first 10 goals of the game against VMI and cruised to a 22-3 win on Sunday afternoon at Michie Stadium.

The Black Knights (2-1) were led by Connor Cook, Cole Johnson and Nate Jones. The attack trio had four goals each, while Johnson topped all scorers with five points. Overall, Army had 13 different goal scorers. Nick Santorelli and Matthew Donovan tied for the team lead with three assists.

AJ Barretto got the start and made nine saves in the first half. All the goalies saw time in the game as Matt Isnardi made three saves, Matt Koziol contributed one stop and Jackson Tamasitis pushed aside two shots. Paul Newbold also got in for the Black Knights.

VMI (0-2) got goals from Cody Sheetz, Dan Bull and Dale Mattice. Joe Riccadonna earned the start and made 12 saves in three quarters, while Logan Moore stopped three shots in one quarter of action.

Army opened the game with 10-straight goals until VMI got on the board with 30 seconds left in the first half. Johnson led the way with three goals, while Jones had two late in the second quarter, including a man-up goal. The Black Knights had a couple of firsts in the opening 30 minutes with John Ragno and Max Kreig scoring their first goals of their careers. Ragno's came as Army's first man down goal of the season. Cook, Jimbo Moore and Shea Mullins also scored during the 10-0 run to start the game.

Barretto was on his game early with five stops in the first quarter and nine in the opening 30 minutes. VMI was able to get 15 shots in the first half and 10 were on net. Bull got the Keydets on the board with 30 seconds left in the half to make it a 10-1 game at the intermission.

The Black Knights came out of the locker room and outscored the Keydets 9-0 to build a 19-1 lead at the end of three quarters. Cook got the scoring started with a natural hat trick in the first 2:36 of the frame. The next two tallies came from Avery Littlejohn and Dalton MacAfee as Army had a 17-1 lead. Jones added to his totals with a pair of goals in the third and Santorelli recorded all three assists in the third frame as well.

Jimmy TenBrink started the scoring in the fourth quarter for his first of the season with Donovan adding the assist. The Keydets got one back with 9:18 to go in the game with Mattice finding the back of the net to make it a 20-2 game. Army finished off its scoring with first career goals from Evan Condon and Tommy Marino, while David Symmes tallied his first of the year with a man-up goal with 3:09 remaining. Sheetz ended the game with VMI's third goal of the afternoon with 17 seconds left to close it out as the Black Knights earned the 22-3 victory.

Army outshot the Keydets, 48-31, and had a 28-26 advantage in ground balls. The Black Knights finished 20-for-27 in faceoffs. Dan Grabher was 8-for-9 and rookie Robby Woodings saw time towards the end of the game and earned six wins in eight opportunities.

A big test awaits the Black Knights next Sunday as Army clashes with No. 5 Syracuse at the Carrier Dome at 4 p.m. on ESPN3.

Game Notes: This was the eighth-straight year the Black Knights and Keydets have met and Army has won all eight meetings … it was the first time the Black Knights had scored 20 or more goals since defeating VMI 24-3 last season … Army saw four players score their first collegiate goals … first time Army has won 20 faceoffs this season and first since winning 20 against Loyola on March 14, 2015 … this was the 93rd win for Coach Joe Alberici in his head coaching career … Johnson tied a career high with four goals and five points.