Cavs ousted in OT; Hardy powers Syracuse in win

By JOHN GALINSKY
Daily Progress staff writer

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Nick Russo kicked his stick, fell to his knees and buried his head in his hands. Virginia’s senior midfielder wasn’t alone in his disappointment and disbelief following the latest excruciating loss for the Cavaliers in the NCAA men’s lacrosse tournament.
Third-seeded Virginia and second-seeded Syracuse went back and forth Saturday in a thrilling semifinal that seemed like it might go on forever, which probably would have been just fine with the ESPN2 audience and crowd of 23,123 at Rutgers Stadium.
Finally, however, the longest final four game in history ended on a goal by an unlikely hero, Orangeman reserve midfielder Tom Hardy, with 32 seconds left in the second overtime. Hardy’s second clutch goal gave Syracuse a 12-11 victory and a third straight championship matchup with Princeton on Memorial Day.
“I think we all witnessed something real special. I thought it was one of the great lacrosse games I’ve been a part of as a player or coach,” said UVa coach Dom Starsia, whose team finished 11-4. “I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of an effort by a group of guys. ... I thought it was a courageous effort by both teams. It’s a shame both teams couldn’t win.”
Since winning the 1999 title, the Cavaliers have lost one-goal games in the past three NCAA tournaments, including an overtime loss to Hofstra in the first round last year. Overall, they have lost four NCAA games in overtime in the past nine years.
“It’s kind of tough to swallow,” said senior attackman Conor Gill, who had one goal and one assist in his final collegiate game. “But it’s a little easier to take when you know you just played in one of the best games ever.”
Virginia nearly prevailed thanks to sophomore goalie Tillman Johnson, who made 18 saves, and three goals apiece from freshmen attackmen Joe Yevoli and John Christmas. Brenndan Mohler’s goal with 4:08 left in regulation capped off a 3-0 run that gave the Cavaliers an 11-10 lead.
But with UVa on the verge of victory, Mohler made a critical error, stepping out of the restraining box with 35 seconds left.
“The second before that happened, I was thinking, ‘Hey, we’re going to win,’” Yevoli said.
Instead, the Orangemen raced downfield after the turnover and Hardy unleashed a 10-yard shot that snuck past Johnson with 25 seconds left. Syracuse won the ensuing faceoff and had a chance to win, but Johnson stopped Brian Nee’s 8-yard shot to force overtime.
It was more of the same in the extra periods. Johnson was brilliant, making three saves on outside shots. UVa’s close defense also did a nice job shutting off Syracuse’s explosive attack. Michael Powell and Josh Coffman, the top scorers on the nation’s best offensive team, did not record a goal after scoring the first three of the game for the Orangemen (14-2).
“I thought our defense played very, very well,” Starsia said.
The Cavaliers were not as sharp on offense after scoring on their first three shots. They had several opportunities to end things in their favor, but Syracuse goalie Jay Pfeifer, who made 19 saves, did not have to stop a shot after Mohler’s go-ahead goal.
In the first overtime, Christmas beat his defender and raced in front of the cage, but he was off-balance and lost the ball as he tried to shoot.
Junior midfielder Chris Rotelli had a clear look but shot wide late in the second OT. Christmas then was called for stepping into the crease — “I wasn’t anywhere near it,” he said later — which set up Syracuse’s final possession.
After Johnson made a save on a shot by Powell, the Orangemen inverted and set up a play for Hardy, their seventh-leading scorer with 12 goals coming into the game.
“He really wanted the ball at the end of the game,” Syracuse coach John Desko said. “You could tell he wouldn’t be denied.”
Hardy received a pass behind the cage and took several hard steps to his right. Russo, checking him on the play, leaped over the back of the net to cut him off. Just then, Hardy changed direction, leaving Russo out of position, and ran to the left side of the crease. All alone against Johnson, he faked a high shot, then went low for the game-winner.
“I just wanted to make a quick move,” Hardy said. “Luckily, the guy got caught up in the net a little bit and I had an opening.”

Snead will be missed
By JERRY RATCLIFFE
Daily Progress sports editor

Moments after stepping off the Independence Golf Club course for the Virginia State Golf Association’s media day on Thursday, players were hit with the news that legendary Sam Snead had passed away.
My playing partner, Don Ryder, who is director of golf at The Homestead, was particularly saddened. A longtime friend of Snead’s, Ryder spent a lot of time with the Slammer.
In fact, when Snead returned to Hot Springs after last month’s Masters, Sam sent Ryder some special gifts, including the glove and ball that Snead used for the ceremonial first drive at Augusta. It was the last ball Slammin’ Sam ever hit.
Ryder and others close to the 89-year-old Snead (he would have been 90 on Monday), knew things were bad. For the first time they could remember, Snead didn’t leave his home off Rt. 220 near the Cascades course after returning from the Masters. He customarily came out and either hit balls or played every day.
A series of strokes apparently were too much for the tough-as-nails Snead to overcome.

Unforgettable

Sportswriters are continuously meeting and hanging out with the good, the bad and the ugly of the sports world. Some of those days are forgettable. Others are not. People always ask about what are some of the most memorable.
One of those days came in Hot Springs back in June of 1992. I was invited to Snead’s home and spent most of the day just talking about his storied life, looking at decades of collected memorabilia, swinging some of his hundreds of golf clubs, including the driver he used during the first 10 years of his professional career.
I kept that taped interview so that I would always be able to remember the real Snead, the storyteller, who was never concerned about being politically correct or using expletives to get his point across.
By now, you’ve read about many of Snead’s feats, the victories, the titles and the like. Here are a few of his favorite stories as told to this columnist almost 10 years ago. Yes, they have been edited for family newspapers. Enjoy.

The Open

Snead loved to talk about the first time he won the British Open in 1946. Although he played in The Open four times, the ’46 trip was the most memorable.
Snead didn’t want to make the trip but was pushed into it by his sponsor, Wilson Sporting Goods. After a long flight, complicated by an emergency landing in Newfoundland due to engine problems, Snead finally made it to Scotland where he took a train to St. Andrew’s, golf’s sacred ground.
“We got over there and we’re going from Edinburg over to St. Andrews,” said Snead. “We’re on this thing that’s supposed to be a train. I’m looking out the window and we go by this golf course. The fence is broken down, the rough was about three feet high. It didn’t look like it had ever been cut in the fairways. It really looked like a sheep pasture. The traps looked like they had never been raked.
“I said to the guy sitting beside me: ‘What abandoned golf course is that?’” recalled Snead.
“The guy looked very insulted and said, ‘I’ll have you to know that’s the Royal and Ancient St. Andrews.’
“I said, ‘You mean they’re holding the British Open here?’
“Well, the fellow was disturbed for the rest of the trip,” chuckled Snead.
The Slammer was a 100-1 underdog to win the tournament but walked away with the title. In his mind, it wasn’t worth the trip.
“Heck, it cost me $2,000 to go play in it and my first prize was 600 bucks. I gave the caddy $200. I didn’t go back to defend but Wilson did give me a $2,000 bonus for winning.”

In the pines

Snead loved to gamble on the golf course. He recalled playing a Nassau at Augusta and decided to use his trickery to his advantage on a particular bet on the par-5 13th, a dogleg right that features tall pines at the bend.

Both drives by Snead and his particular pigeon had come to rest near the bend and the Slammer decided this was just the right time to take advantage of his opponent.

“Things were getting a little tight and I told the fella, that ‘When I was his age, I used to take it right across those trees and I’d have a short iron to the green,’” said Snead with a twinkle in his eyes.

“Well that made him gung-ho. His bicep was the same size of his wrist. It looked like a monkey’s arm. But he was a big hitter. He bowed up in the back and let go with his shot.”
The guy’s shot made it about halfway up those towering Georgia pines but couldn’t come close to clearing as the ball caught up in the branches and filtered down to the creek below. He turned to Snead with a puzzling look.
Snead told him, ‘When I was your age, those trees were only about 30-feet high.’”

Presidents and such

Snead played golf and was friends with royalty, presidents, entertainers and sports celebrities, including Boston Red Sox star Ted Williams. The two had a running debate about which of their sports was the most difficult, until Williams, who lacked the patience for Sam’s sport, just gave up golf.
“Ted told me, ‘You’re just an [expletive] golfer. There you are, club in your hand and your ball’s sitting there waiting for you to hit it.’ Now in baseball, the ball’s coming over at 90 miles per hour and jumping and you’ve got to hit it with a bat.’
Snead replied, “But Ted, you’ve got 40 acres to hit the ball and I’ve got a four and one-quarter inch hole to put it in.’ I said, ‘If you foul it, you get another swing. But if I foul it, I gotta go hunt it and play it.’”

Humbled at 60

There was the day Snead scored a 60 on the Lower Cascades course, where he played most of his golf during his decline. Not bad, considering he was 71 years old at the time.
“I was 12 under after 16 holes and on the 18th hole, I fired a second shot and I said that it might go in. But I guess the Lord said, ‘Son, you’ve had enough.’
“The ball kicked right and I had about a 20-footer, hole high for birdie and a 59. I didn’t want to give it a charge and three-putt the damned thing, so I tried to hole it. It broke out of the hole, below the hole. I made it for a 60. I think that was the easiest round I ever played. Never missed a fairway, never missed a green and missed only a few putts, at the third, the seventh and 18th holes.”

We suppose that after the Lord watched Sam’s last tee shot on Augusta’s hallowed ground in April, that he said again, ‘Son, you’ve had enough.’
We shall miss him.

Cavaliers fumble away shot at title

A turnover with 35 seconds left allows Syracuse to tie the score, and the Orangemen eliminate UVa in the second overtime.

By DOUG DOUGHTY
THE ROANOKE TIMES

   PISCATAWAY, N.J. - The Virginia men's lacrosse team knows from experience that opportunities to play for a national championship do not come along every year.

    The Cavaliers let a good one slip away Saturday.

    Third-seeded UVa (11-4) had the ball and a one-goal lead with less than one minute left in the Division I men's lacrosse semifinals, but Syracuse senior Tom Hardy scored the tying and winning goals as the Orangemen defeated the Cavaliers 12-11 in double overtime.

    Second-seeded Syracuse (14-2) advanced to the championship game for the fourth consecutive year and the third straight time against fourth-seeded Princeton (10-4). The Tigers enjoyed their eighth straight win, knocking off top-seeded Johns Hopkins 11-9 in the first semifinal.

    "It wouldn't be the championship if it wasn't Syracuse-Princeton," Syracuse All-American Michael Powell said.

    The Orangemen might have had their doubts after Virginia, down 10-8 with under 11 1/2 minutes remaining, scored three unanswered goals and took the lead on a bouncer by senior midfielder Brenndan Mohler with 4:08 remaining.

    Mohler would have been the hero if not for a turnover with 35 seconds left, when he stepped out of the offensive zone, giving possession to the Orangemen.

    "You try to make them think about it as much as you can," UVa coach Dom Starsia said. "In retrospect, I would tell you, we didn't talk about it enough. I don't know that he stepped out as much as he allowed himself to be caught on the edge.

    "I don't think he demonstrated that he wasn't aware of what was going on. We'll watch the videotape. I'm not saying it wasn't the correct call."

    Hardy scored with 25 seconds left and, after Syracuse won the ensuing faceoff, the Orangemen had a shot to win the game in regulation before UVa goalie Tillman Johnson stopped Brian Nee.

    "Maybe I shouldn't say this," UVa freshman Joe Yevoli said, "but, just a split second before the turnover, I remember thinking, 'We're going to win this thing.' I don't know how you could be much closer."

    Johnson matched a career high with 18 saves, including three in overtime, but he had no answer for Hardy with 32 seconds left in the second OT. Hardy had put a fake on UVa senior Nick Russo.

    It was the Cavaliers' second loss to Syracuse, which won 15-13 in Charlottesville, in early March, when Virginia had first-team All-America defenseman Mark Koontz, named ACC Player of the Year before a season-ending knee injury.

    Steve Holmes, who took Koontz's spot in the starting lineup, was one of five UVa freshman who received significant playing time Saturday. Two of them, Yevoli and Johnny Christmas, shared goal-scoring honors with three apiece.

    Three goals in 44 seconds enabled UVa to take a 3-0 lead with less than two minutes elapsed, but it was 6-6 by halftime. The Cavaliers were making their 15th appearance in the semifinals, with the last 14 resulting in a single championship (in 1999).

    "I think we all witnessed something special," Starsia said. "This is one of the great lacrosse games I've been a part of. Virginia gets knocked sometimes for underachieving, but I don't know when I've ever been prouder of an effort."

By DOUG DOUGHTY
Exclusive to roanoke.com by 5 p.m. Fridays

Chris Beatty was able to build a reputation for high-powered offenses without an abundance of Division I-A prospects.

Now, as he enters his second year at Salem High School in Virginia Beach, Beatty has recruiters flocking to his door.

Beatty said earlier this week that running back Isaiah Gardner and wide receiver Shannon Lane, a pair of rising seniors, each has 10-12 scholarship offers.

Schools involved with both players are Virginia Tech, Virginia, Michigan, Michigan State, Maryland, N.C. State, North Carolina, West Virginia and Syracuse.

Beatty said that Tech has offered both players and that Virginia has offered Lane and is "very interested" in Gardner. Tennessee is among Lane's suitors.

Lane spent his junior year at Princess Anne in Virginia Beach before transferring to Salem, where Beatty uses a spread offense. Chris Ashinhurst broke the state record for passing yardage when he played for Beatty at North Stafford; then, Mike Biehl broke Ashinhurst's record last year for Salem.

Beatty hopes he can find somebody to play quarterback because there aren't many wide receivers as physically gifted as Lane, a 6-foot-1, 190-pounder with 4.45-second speed for 40 yards.

Lane reportedly was the fastest underclassmen at Virginia Tech's camp last summer and Gardner may be faster, based on a 4.4 40 time reported by Beatty. They push each other in the sprints for the Salem track team.
Gardner is unlikely to rush for 2,000 yards in Salem's offense but he'll get plenty of work.

"We're going to throw to Isaiah more this year," Beatty said. "He had 26 catches last year. We'd like for him to double that this year. We're going to run it a little more than we did. If you've got a back that's that good, you've got to give him the ball."

Gardner has a 3.0 grade-point average, Beatty said, and Gardner is in the 2.75 range.

ROBBIE CATTERTON, profiled in last week's Notebook Plus, received a scholarship offer during a one-hour meeting Tuesday with Virginia coach Al Groh. Catterton (6-3, 191) plays linebacker at Kellam in Virginia Beach but may be a strong safety or wide receiver in college.

Catterton met Wednesday this week with Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer and Tidewater recruiter Bryan Stinespring, who left the Catterton family believing that a scholarship offer should be forthcoming in the near future.

It is unlikely that Tech will have more than 15 scholarships to offer, and with commitments already from Matt Welsh and Kory Robertson, the Hokies may be feeling a scholarship crunch. They said that Catteron is "definitely in their plans," but did not use the word "offer," according to Catterton's father.

TECH MAY BE IN A similar dilemma with Danny Prentice, a 6-1, 220-pound linebacker from Oakton High School, alma mater of Brian Welch, a part-time starter for the Hokies this past season. Recruiting analyst Mike Farrell has written that Prentice wants to stay in state and is "torn" between Tech and UVa, although he has firm offers from Maryland and Boston College.

ANOTHER PLAYER HIGH on Tech's list is Brent Warren, a linebacker from Centreville High School in Fairfax, where Welsh (see above) is one of his teammates. Warren's mother, Irene, reports that Brent has offers from Tech, Marshall and Richmond. Warren's father, Don, is a former Washington Redskins tight end; an older brother, Blake, is on schoplarship at Tech.

VIRGINIA'S SEARCH for quarterback prospects has taken the Cavaliers to California, where Menlo Park quarterback T.C. Ostrander has decided to attend UVa's summer camp. Ostrander, who scored 1,460 on the Scholastic Assessment Test, is said to favor Stanford; however, his only offer to this point is from Oregon State.

FORMER ROANOKE TIMES sportswriter Blair Kerkhoff, who covers college sports for the Kansas City Star, said he feels 6-5 Shane Power would be a good catch for the Cavaliers. Power arrived in Charlottesville for a visit Thursday after gaining his release from Iowa State.

Kerkhoff described Power as a dangerous outside shooter who suffered from the departure of point guard Jamaal Tinsley following the 2000-2001 season. Power was 20-of-45 on 3-pointers as a freshman that year, including 15-of-30 in Big Ten play.

Although the Cavaliers had received word that Power might be looking around last year, they did not become involved this year until reading on the Internet that Power would be leaving Iowa State. The staff then called Iowa State to learn if Power had received a release, which he had.

By Christian Swezey
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, May 26, 2002; Page D02

PISCATAWAY, N.J., May 25 -- Virginia senior attackman Conor Gill did not touch the ball in the two overtimes his team played against Syracuse in the NCAA tournament semifinals today. Instead, he could only watch as Tom Hardy scored the winning goal with 32 seconds left in the second overtime in Syracuse's 12-11 victory before 23,121 at Rutgers Stadium.

Syracuse (14-2) advanced to play Princeton (10-4) in the title game Monday morning. It's the third consecutive year the Orangemen and Tigers will meet in the final, and the two have combined to win 12 of the past 14 titles. Princeton defeated No. 1 seed Johns Hopkins, 11-9, in the first semifinal.

The Cavaliers (11-4) nearly were the ones celebrating today. They held an 11-10 lead with 35 seconds left when senior Brenndan Mohler turned over the ball when he was forced out of the restraining box.

The Orangemen (14-2) tied the game at 11 following a fast-break goal by Hardy with 25 seconds to play.

The Cavaliers had four shots in overtime but none was on goal. Syracuse won the game on its fourth possession when Hardy beat senior Nick Russo behind the goal and scored on a close shot past goaltender Tillman Johnson with 32 seconds left.

"I saw [Russo] behind, and [Hardy] faked left and turned back," Johnson said. "Our defender slipped or something happened, and he came in one-on-one and faked high and shot low."

Said Virginia Coach Dom Starsia: "Nick is pretty upset. He's a pretty emotional kid. It was hard when he got hung up with Hardy. We were a little hesitant to [double-team]. Nick was in an impossible situation."

Gill finished with one goal and one assist. He had nine assists in an 11-10 victory over Cornell last week and likely will be a three-time first-team all-American when that team is announced Monday.

Gill had scored the clinching goal when Virginia defeated Syracuse, 12-10, to win the NCAA title in 1999. Since then, however, his three trips to the postseason have ended with one-goal losses.

"It was kind of disappointing, Hardy just made a great play," Gill said. "He made the plays at the end. . . . I thought we were pretty close."

The Cavaliers took their last lead today at 11-10 on a goal by Mohler with 4 minutes 8 seconds to play. After that, they had five turnovers and missed four shots. Johnson finished with 18 saves, the most by a Virginia goalie in the postseason since 1991. Freshmen John Christmas and Joe Yevoli each had three goals for Virginia.

Junior Michael Springer had four goals, and Hardy and sophomore Michael Powell each added two for the Orangemen.

Both teams had chances to win the game in overtime. Virginia junior Chris Rotelli narrowly missed a 15-yard shot with 2:57 left in the second overtime. Christmas also had rounded his defender and was about to take a close shot on Syracuse goalie Jay Pfeifer (19 saves) when freshman Donn Vidosh tapped Christmas's stick and knocked the ball loose.

Johnson made three saves in overtime.

While most of their teammates stood and listened to Starsia's postgame speech, Gill and Russo knelt side-by-side with their heads down.

"I'm pretty speechless," Starsia said. "This is one of the best lacrosse games I've been a part of. . . . We often get knocked as a team that underachieves, but this team battled pretty hard."

In the first semifinal, Princeton led 5-1 at the end of the first quarter, and top-seeded Johns Hopkins (12-2) did not get closer than two goals the rest of the game. Senior B.J. Prager had five goals on seven shots for Princeton. Junior Adam Doneger and freshman Kyle Barrie each had three goals for the Blue Jays.

Johns Hopkins junior Bobby Benson, the team's leading scorer and a member of the U.S. World Cup team, was held without a goal and took his first shot with 7:33 remaining.

Legend of Snead will forever swing over golf
Furman Bisher - Staff
Sunday, May 26, 2002

Asheville, N.C. --- The fellow who should have won the Masters in 1954 sat across the table at Biltmore Forest Country Club, and the talk was about the fellow who did. News had arrived that Sam Snead had died, and Sam stories saturated conversation around the annual Jess Sweetser Invitational at this grand old club. Naturally, Billy Joe Patton had a more than passing interest in the subject, for he had the Masters in his pocket that year, would have been the first (and only) amateur champion, until he drowned shots at the 13th and 15th holes.

Both Snead and Ben Hogan passed him and played off the tie the following day, and Snead would win his third and last green jacket.

"Did you stay for the playoff?" somebody asked Billy Joe.

"Are you kidding? I got out of there as fast as I could and drove home to Morganton," he said.

Samuel Jackson Snead was 89, and when you get to that lap in life, death cannot be unexpected. Yet, the news still shocked. This great player, this athlete, this seemingly indestructible man had slipped away in Hot Springs, Va.

He once told me, "When I die, I want 'em to stand me in a box on that hill over there so I can look out across that valley."

Sam was the original "Big Bertha," long before the Callaway club. The title of "Big Bertha of Golf" was bestowed upon him by a British newspaper at the Ryder Cup matches at Royal Birkdale in 1937.

England was not one of his favorite venues. He played and won the British Open at St. Andrews in 1946, when his shoot-from-the-lip comments about the Old Course raised a few eyebrows and pursed a few lips. Fred Corcoran, who was managing his affairs, tried to get him to go back to defend. Not Sam. "I lost money the last time. It costs too much to get there and back." The winner's purse was 500 pounds in those times.

Money meant a lot to Sam. He grew up scratching and scrambling for what little he could squeeze out of life in the backwoods mountains of Virginia, once working for $20 a month cleaning clubs and shoes at the Cascades course at Homestead. He moved back and forth between Homestead and Greenbriar as his career progressed, all depending on which offered the best deal.

The bumpkin in him wore off as he broadened his vistas, but not before this happened when he won one of his first PGA Tour events, the Oakland Open in 1937. The following day, someone showed him his wire photo in the New York Times.

"How'd they do that?" he said. "I never been to New York in my life."

This bucolic manchild could be raw and crusty; he could be a charmer. He lived his own life the way he chose. Fishing was one of his addictions. Once in pursuit of material for a book of the Masters, visiting at his place in Florida, he took me into a storage room to show me some of his fishing trophies, with great pride.

"Where is your British Open trophy?" I asked.

He rumbled around among a bunch of boxes, threw some junk aside, and the dust was flying when he came up with his claret jug out from under the pile. Blew the dust off and held it up. "It cost me enough," he said.

The PGA Tour events he won, 81 by exact count, were he to have won them today, he'd have broken anybody's record. That does not count the rest of the tournaments he won internationally, all coming to a total of 135. Most he made in a tour year was $41,647 in 1974, when he was long past his prime. Eluding his pursuit was the U.S. Open, which he never won but came close four times, second to Ralph Guldahl, Lew Worsham, Cary Middlecoff and Ben Hogan.

He had a memory for every shot that was important to him, good or bad. Back to l954 again, and the Masters that Patton lost: As we talked, I mentioned some situation that Hogan brought up and how it affected the playoff.

"Oh, no," Sam said, "it wasn't that way at all. I'll tell you how it went," then proceeded to replay the match, stroke by stroke, through the entire 18 holes. I still have it on a tape in my files.

They memorialize the swing, and a beauty it was, but no telling what kind of athlete Sam Snead could have been if he had chosen any other game. He was a marvel, dangerous in mixed company, but a rare specimen of man among men.

Jeff Zrebiec
Sun Staff
Originally published May 26, 2002