CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- After getting pounded by a relentless Virginia offense during a fourth quarter his team would rather forget, all Johns Hopkins goalkeeper Brian Carcaterra could do was salute the Cavaliers.
Carcaterra was far from the only one to blame for a crunch-time collapse that underscored yesterday's 16-8 rout by No. 2 Virginia before 3,428 at Klockner Stadium.
No one had a better vantage point from which to view Virginia's dominance than Carcaterra. He weathered an unanswered six-goal burst over the final 6: 17 that closed out the scoring and sent the No. 6 Blue Jays home on an embarrassing note.
It was the largest victory margin by Virginia in the 69-game series with Hopkins that dates to 1904. The 16 goals scored by the Cavaliers matched the highest number ever surrendered by the Blue Jays in the series. That last occurred 10 months ago in the NCAA semifinals, a 16-11 Virginia victory that was its next-to-last step toward a national championship.
One might say the Cavaliers have the Blue Jays' number.
"They take such precision shots. They don't waste any," said Carcaterra, who had 17 saves. "They are a patient team that waits for their chances, and they don't take too many shots outside of 6 or 7 yards.
"We fouled a lot, turned the ball over too much, extended ourselves too much trying to make a big play," he added. "There's only so many times you can give them second opportunities before the bubble bursts. They whipped us."
The Blue Jays (1-3) concluded a March schedule in which they failed for the third time to beat a team ranked in the top five. This was the most discouraging loss of the trio.
Virginia, which has won four straight after dropping its season opener to Syracuse in overtime, won with the style of a champion.
The Cavaliers took a 7-3 halftime lead, running excellent transition offense while capitalizing on sloppy ball-handling and poor extra-man offense by the Blue Jays. They took Hopkins' best shot in the third quarter, when the Blue Jays got great midfield play and a combined four goals by freshman attackmen Bobby Benson (team-high four goals) and Adam Doneger to cut the lead to 8-7 at the end of the period.
With sophomore attackman Conor Gill leading them, the Cavaliers then put Hopkins in their rearview mirror, first by easing to a 10-8 advantage early in the fourth quarter, then by blowing them out with superior depth and tremendous shooting.
