Spiders Get SoCon Play Started with 18-12 Win at VMI

Saturday, March 10

Lexington, VA

12:00 p.m.

University of Richmond

3-3, 1-0

VMI

1-4, 0-1

Richmond

VMI

03/10/2018 | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

By: Matt Moretti III (@Moretts13)

LEXINGTON, Va. – The University of Richmond men's lacrosse team (3-3, 1-0 SoCon) began Southern Conference play on Saturday afternoon with an 18-12 victory at VMI (1-4, 0-1 SoCon). Hat tricks from Ryan Lanchbury and Teddy Hatfield set the tone for the Spiders who moved to 4-1 all-time against the Keydets.

Lanchbury and Hatfield continue to lead the potent Spider offense but outside of those six scores the Spiders certainly shared the wealth. Austin Brown, Eric Haehl and Layne Collins all added a pair of goals while Mitch Goldberg, Ryan Lee, Sean Menges, Tyler Shoults, Michael Reale and Jack Worstell all added one score. Lanchbury led the way with seven points, supplemented by his team-high four assists. Four other goal scorers added assists as well.

"Today was a typical SoCon opener," head coach Dan Chemotti said. "Both teams played hard and kept fighting for 60 minutes. To VMI's credit when we got ahead by a couple, time and again, they made timely plays. A credit to their kids and coaches. Thankfully, we stuck to the script and came away with the win. In the first half we played at least nine midfielders, five attackmen, and similar numbers on defense. That speaks to the intensity and competitive spirit we had at practice this past week. Our goal remains to make improvements from one day to the next."

Richmond got the scoring started for its side at the 8:34 mark when trailing, 1-0, already. Tyler Shoults canned his fifth score of the season thanks to an assist from Haehl to make it a 1-1 ball game and Hatfield scored his first of the game just a minute and half later, unassisted to give Richmond its first lead. The Spiders never trailed again. Ryan Lee added one more before the first quarter came to a close with an assist from Lanchbury.

Eric Haehl needed just 44 seconds in the second quarter to knot his second goal of the season, making it 4-2, Richmond. VMI responded with a goal of its own but Richmond answered with two unanswered thanks to Collins and Menges, respectively, with the second being assisted by Jack Cook. VMI came back with a pair of goals to pull within one, 6-5, with 4:57 to play in the half but Haehl had other ideas, burying his second tally of the game at the 2:10 mark to send the Spiders to the locker room with a 7-5 lead.

VMI did its best to hang around in the third, scoring first out of the break but Brown scored to offset to the early Keydet score to keep Richmond in the lead by two. Hatfield and Goldberg followed with goals to push Richmond ahead 10-6 with 5;42 to play in the quarter. Richmond was in control and getting stronger at this stage in the action. VMI came back with a pair to end the third but Lanchbury responded early in the fourth to return the momentum to the Spiders.

Richmond went on to outscore VMI, 8-4 in the fourth quarter but it was the four unanswered scores from the 11:52-10:06 marks that put this game out of reach and into the win column for the Spiders. Jack Worstell scored his first of the season with five seconds to play in the game to get the celebration underway.

Richmond returns home on Wednesday (Mar. 14) to lock up with No. 9 North Carolina at Robins Stadium. That game is set to begin at 6 p.m.