BALTIMORE, Md.- As the final seconds of the game ticked away on the clock and the Cavaliers' victory became official, senior defenseman Ned Bowen leapt into junior goalie Tillman Johnson's arms. The entire Virginia squad soon followed suit and celebrated their first moments as champions by collapsing in a big pile on top of their net minder.
It seemed to be the only place suitable for the team to celebrate their win. Johnson tallied 13 saves, many of them spectacular stops from point blank range, against a Johns Hopkins offense ranked number one in the nation. Senior midfielder A.J. Shannon scored a game-high of four goals as Virginia defeated the top-seeded Blue Jays 9-7 in front of a record crowd of 37,944 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore May 26.
Shannon scored three goals early in the first half to help the Cavaliers open up a 5-0 lead. The Blue Jays scored five of the game's next six goals to pull within one, but would get no closer than that. Late scores by freshman attackman Matt Ward, sophomore attackman John Christmas as well as another one from Shannon allowed the Cavaliers to hold the lead throughout and earn the school's second championship in five years.
"Pretty much I was just shooting as hard as I could to different parts of the net and I just figured if he could stop it, more power to him," Shannon said. "I just had that feeling that [Hopkins goalie Rob Scherr] couldn't keep up with it today."
Despite Shannon's impressive offensive output, the standout performance of the day belonged to Johnson and Virginia defense. The Blue Jays came into the championship averaging 14.4 goals a game and scored 19 in the semifinals against Syracuse but were shut down by the Cavaliers.
"Early in the game our offense wasn't getting anything going like we usually have all year," Hopkins midfielder Adam Doneger said. "A lot of that has to do with Tillman Johnson, he played a hell of a game. I give a lot of credit to him and their defense because they did a great job of stopping our offense today."
Johnson earned the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament, consistently coming up with difficult saves in timely situations to keep the Cavaliers in control of the game.
Early in the fourth quarter, with Virginia up 8-5, Johnson shocked the crowd by stopping three shots in a span of 17 seconds, including two clear attempts from within five yards that seemed to be sure goals.
"I don't know if you can describe it, [Johnson] is unbelievable," senior long stick midfielder Trey Whitty said. "We're a good defense with a great goalie and we all rally around him. That flurry where he made three point-blank saves, I started to feel really confident that we were going to be able to take this home."
The Blue Jays were able to keep the game fairly close until the very end, however. With less than two minutes left, Christmas found the top right corner of the net to put Virginia up 9-6, but received a one-minute unsportsmanlike penalty for his excessive celebration after the goal.
Hopkins capitalized on the man-advantage opportunity right away, as Doneger rifled a sidearm shot to the left side of Johnson just 13 seconds later. Since Christmas's penalty was unreleasable, the Blue Jays had another 47 seconds with a man up, but sophomore Virginia midfielder Jack deVilliers won the ensuing faceoff and the Cavaliers held possession for the last minute and a half of the game.
DeVilliers won 12 out of 19 faceoff attempts in the game, including all three in the fourth quarter to help the Cavaliers retain possession in the game's critical moments.
"Just going in, I knew if I did my move and got the ball out I knew I'd have a good chance," deVilliers said. "If you have an offense like our team, when you get them the ball, half the time they're going to score."
Virginia fell to both Hopkins and their semifinal opponent, Maryland, in a pair of back-to-back 8-7 regular season losses in March. With their Final Four victories over those two squads, the Cavaliers managed to record a defeat over every team on their schedule, ranked the toughest in the country.
Against the Terrapins in the semifinal, Johnson put forth an equally impressive performance, stopping 16 shots and letting by only three goals to help the Cavaliers earn a 14-4 blowout victory.
Freshman attackman Matt Ward netted four goals in the win and earned All-Tournament team honors along with Johnson, Shannon, junior defenseman Brett Hughes, and senior midfielder Chris Rotelli, who scored once and dished out four assists against Hopkins.
The Cavaliers easily defeated Georgetown 12-7 in the quarterfinals and pummeled Mount St. Mary's 19-8 in the first round of the tournament.
The championship victory marked the tenth win in a row for the Cavaliers and snapped the Blue Jays' winning streak at 11 games.
The title is Virginia's third in school history; the other two coming in 1972 and 1999. But for a program that has a reputation of historically failing to live up to its potential, the victory proved that a Virginia squad has what it takes to be champions.
"Underachievers or overachievers, I have no idea," Virginia coach Dom Starsia said. "All I know is that I'm proud to be a part of this."
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