UVa romps, rolls into final

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — When Virginia and Johns Hopkins met two months ago in a regular-season clash in Baltimore, the Cavaliers blew an early, six-goal lead before rallying late to beat the Blue Jays by one. In yesterday’s NCAA tournament quarterfinals at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, Virginia cut the suspense and simply blew Hopkins away.
The Cavaliers, looking extremely worthy as the tournament’s No. 1 seed, jumped the eighth-seeded Blue Jays early, then overwhelmed Hopkins en route to a 19-8 knockout before a crowd of 12,142.
The victory catapulted Virginia (15-2) into its 11th tournament semifinal round under veteran coach Dom Starsia, who celebrated his 300th career victory.
Virginia, in search of its fourth NCAA title under Starsia and first since 2006, will face fifth-seeded Cornell (12-3) on Saturday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.
Two months after slipping past the Blue Jays, 16-15, at Homewood Field, the Cavaliers were way too much for Hopkins (10-5) to handle.
Hopkins suffered its most lopsided postseason loss in school history, while the Blue Jays allowed the second-most goals in their playoff history, which includes 38 straight Division I tournament appearances and 19 consecutive trips to the quarterfinals.
The stars were everywhere for Virginia, which has amassed 37 goals in the first two playoff rounds while surrendering only 14.
Sophomore Shamel Bratton scored a career-high five goals. Senior attackman Garrett Billings collected four goals and three assists. Freshman attackman Steele Stanwick finished with career-highs in assists (five) and points (seven).
And the Cavaliers, who led by 13 in the second half, shot a blistering 40 percent, while holding the Blue Jays to a season-low eight goals. Virginia feasted on 24 Hopkins turnovers and nine failed clears by the Blue Jays. Hopkins attackmen Chris Boland and Kyle Wharton, who entered the contest with a combined 90 points, produced one goal. Boland was shut out. Virginia sophomore goalie Adam Ghitelman finished with 14 saves.
“I have seen a much sharper focus over the last couple weeks, especially from our older guys. We’ve asked more in practice than I normally would this time of year, but I think we needed that because we didn’t finish the season on a high note,” said Starsia, alluding to a pair of late-season losses to Duke.
“So far in these first two games [including an 18-6 rout of Villanova in the first round], we’ve come out with a little sense of purpose and it’s played out for us.”
Hopkins has gotten by for much of the year with an offense that had averaged 11.5 goals to take pressure off of a shaky defense.
On Sunday, the Cavaliers used their athleticism, pinpoint passing and precise shooting to exploit the Blue Jays inside, whether in transition or from a settled attack.
The competition was over early. After the Blue Jays took a 1-0 lead on a 12-yard shot by midfielder Brian Christopher (two goals), Virginia went to work.
Over an 11-minute span in the first quarter, the Cavaliers shook Hopkins with a 6-0 run. Midfielder Rhamel Bratton beat Hopkins goalie Michael Gvozden twice from the left wing to make it 3-1 with 5:50 left in the first quarter.
Then, after Shamel Bratton blew an 18-yarder by Gvozden, Stanwick pounced on a failed clear and fed Billings for a point-blank score. Billings then took a pass from Stanwick and finished with a behind-the-back shot in close to make it 6-1 with 2:57 left.
The teams traded goals briefly in the second quarter, before Virginia blew the game open with a five-goal run to make it 12-3 late in the quarter. By halftime, Billings and Shamel Bratton had hat tricks.
Bratton scored two more in the first 13 minutes of the second half, as Virginia used a 4-0, third-quarter run to put Hopkins in a 16-4 hole with 2:17 left. The Cavaliers led by as much as 18-5 with 6:03 left. By that time, Starsia had pulled many starters.
“We played like a team that hadn’t been here before, and [Virginia] played like a team that had been here before,” Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala said. “We got out-coached. We got out-played. We got out-hustled. We got beaten in every phase of the game.”