Spiders Surge Past Furman into SoCon Title Game, 16-8

Thursday, May 3

Robins Stadium

5:30 PM

University of Richmond

10-5

Furman

4-10

Furman

RICHMOND

Spiders Surge Past Furman into SoCon Title Game, 16-8

05/03/2018 | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

By: Matt Moretti III (@Moretts13)

UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. – The University of Richmond men's lacrosse team will play for a championship. On Thursday afternoon under the setting sun at Robins Stadium, the top-seeded Spiders (10-5) outlasted Furman (4-10), 16-8, to earn the right to play for the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament on Saturday afternoon.

Records fell, left and right, on Friday afternoon. Teddy Hatfield scored three goals and added four assists. Those four assists are a SoCon Tournament single-game record and enough to give him 66 for his career, a SoCon All-Time record. The 12 assists by the entire team are also a SoCon Tournament single-game record and the 28 Richmond points match a SoCon Tournament single-game record.

Ryan Lee got the party started for the Spiders, with the first of his three goals, with help from Tyler Shoults after the Spiders had given up an early goal to Furman. Lee's score at the 11:34 mark sparked a 3-2 run to end the first quarter for the home side. After falling behind, 2-1, Lee switched roles and handed out an assist to Teddy Hatfield with 9:46 left and Mitch Goldberg provided some cushion with a blast from the top that made it 4-2 after one.

Teddy continued his hot start with his 30th goal of the season, an extra-man chance, just 13 seconds into the second frame. Ryan Lanchbury provided the assist on that score, his 12th of the season and got his comeuppance later on. Savoca became the second freshman on the roster to reach the 20-goal plateau at the 12:18 mark and after a Furman goal, Lee added his second of the game off another assist from Hatfield to make it 6-3.

Just over two minutes later, Austin Brown fired an absolute laser from the right side to make it 7-3. Furman answered at the 3:55 mark and closed the scoring in the first half with a tally at 2:07 but sandwiched in-between was Lanchbury's first goal of the afternoon, assisted by Hatfield. The three assists in the first half from Teddy matched a Southern Conference single-game record, already owned by Hatfield. It also gave him 65 assists for his career which matched the SoCon all-time record.

Furman used the third quarter to put a scare into the hometown crowd. The Paladins tallied a pair of goals and kept the Spiders at bay throughout the frame to cut the Richmond lead to just one, 8-7, as the clock dipped below a minute to play. The Spiders maintained possession and with just one second left, Savoca fired home a back-breaking score before the buzzer rang out, sending the Robins Stadium faithful into a frenzy.

That was the momentum swing that Richmond needed heading into the fourth quarter against the lone SoCon team to beat the Spiders in the regular season. Teddy Hatfield, Austin Brown (man-up), Ryan Lee and Mitch Goldberg all scored in the first 2:28 of the fourth to take a commanding, 13-7 lead at that stage. All but one goal over the stretch was assisted, all three by senior Layne Collins.

Furman woke back up with a score at the 9:44 mark but Richmond responded with Lanchbury's second tally of the afternoon, which, to add insult to injury, was scored through a cross-check that resulted in a man-up chance for the Spiders. Lanchbury made them pay, collecting his fourth-straight hat trick and that more-or-less sealed this one. Michael Reale tallied his third goal of the season at the 3:39 mark to complete the scoring in this one.

The Spiders advance to Saturday's Southern Conference Championship game where they will be in search of the second trip to the NCAA Tournament in program history. Richmond will match up with No. 3 Jacksonville. The Championship game will faceoff at 2 p.m. on Saturday (May 5).