Posted: Mar 28, 2009
ASHLAND, Va. --- Roanoke held off a fourth-quarter rally from Randolph-Macon to win, 13-9 in its ODAC-opener on the road Saturday afternoon. The Maroons improved to 11-0, 1-0 in the ODAC this season while the Yellow Jackets dropped to 4-3, 0-1 in the conference.
The Maroons, who are 111-27 all-time in ODAC play since 1981, now hold a 34-4 series lead against the Yellow Jackets. The last defeat for Roanoke in the series came in 1972 and has won the last 33-straight.
Roanoke, ranked third in this week's USILA Top-20 poll, outshot R-MC, 51-27 and won the groundball war, 63-47. The Maroons won 14-of-23 face-offs and were 22-of-24 on clear attempts. They were also 4-of-8 on extra-man opportunities.
Seven of the eight first-half goals were scored by the Maroons and took control of the game early. Three of the seven goals during that span came off man-up opportunities, two of those by Ashton Hotchkiss.
Roger Wilson scored his third goal of the season off an assist from Matt Quinton to make it, 7-0. Tyler Midwinter scored for the Yellow Jackets to make it, 7-1 at the half.
Rowe and Kevin Patton scored the only goals of the third quarter to cut the Roanoke lead to 10-6. Then Patrick Egan and Midwinter collected the first two strikes of the final quarter to pull R-MC within in two at 10-8 with 11:13 to play.
A Pat March score with 9:16 to go gave RC an 11-8 advantage, before Brian Rowe scored a man-up goal with 3:53 left, making the game 11-9 in favor of RC.
That would be as close as the Jackets would get as March and Noah Gibby each scored goals in the final twenty two seconds of the contest and RC goalie Jake Dorsey made some key saves down the stretch to seal the game for Maroons.
Roanoke was led by March with four goals and one assist while Trey Keeley led the team with three assists. Hotchkiss had two goals and an assist and Jeff Keating totaled two assists.
Greg Khanzadian won 9-of-11 face-offs and collected nine groundballs on the day. Sam Love collected six groundballs and Stephen Simmons scored a goal and collected seven groundballs in the win.
Quinton finished with one assist and needs one points to become the 40th member of the 100-point club at Roanoke. He needs one more shot on goal to become 10th on the career shots on goal list. Dorsey finished with 11 saves on the afternoon and needs three more to have 400 for his career.
Midwinter finished the game with four goals to lead R-MC, while Adam Liberto made 15 stops in the cage for the Jackets.
The men will host Hampden-Sydney in their ODAC home-opener Saturday, April 4. The Maroons hold a 24-10 all-time series advantage and will look to avenge last year's 13-12 overtime loss. Game time is scheduled for 2 p.m.
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