TUCSON, Arizona — Greg King (So., Bethesda, Md.) scored five goals to collect Player of the Game honors as No. 12-ranked/Mid-Atlantic Division Champion Villanova University pulled ahead 2-0 in the first quarter and cruised to a 13-8 defeat of No. 18/Northwest Division Champion Oregon State University in the final game on Day One of the 2018 Men’s National Collegiate Club Championship hosted by the University of Arizona.
Courtesy the win, Villanova advances to a showdown against No. 15/New England Division Champion Boston College at 1:40 p.m. on Saturday, November 10, with a berth in the tournament’s Ninth Place game on the line.
The Wildcats wasted little time in pulling ahead to stay as Matt Hoban (So., Glen Ellyn, Ill.) and Will Marvin (So., Stamford, Conn.) dropped in shots with 6:23 and 5:45 remaining in the first quarter, respectively, for a 2-0 lead.
Connor Wu (So., San Jose, Calif.) halved the margin to 2-1 with a man-up tally at 4:43, but King connected on his inaugural strike at 4:31 to return the spread to a pair. Wu buried an even-strength chance at 4:21 to once again move the Beavers within one at 3-2. but a succssful five-meter penalty shot by King (2:40) followed by a six-on-five conversion by Thomas Dougherty (Fr., Lower Gwynedd Valley) with 39 ticks on the clock permitted Villanova to pull ahead 5-2 by the conclusion of the first quarter.
Connor Farrell (So., Glastonbury, Conn.) and Dougherty padded the lead to 7-2 in the opening moments of the second quarter by finding the back of the cage for natural markers at 5:26 and 2:43, respectively. However, Oregon State shrank its deficit from 7-2 down to 7-4 by halftime as Santiago Gomez (Fr., Beaveron, Ore.) and Wu stroked in shots at 1:19 and 40 seconds.
The Beavers continued to slowly crawl back into the game Carl Bohme (Fr., Bend, Ore.) (6:44) and Gomez (3:35) put away shots to sandwich a score by King at 3:51 to inch Oregon State within two at 8-6.
However, Villanova put the contest out of reach in the first five minutes of the fourth quarter as King (6:13, man-up; 2:07, even-strength), Marvin (5:38, even-strength), Farrell (3:57, even-strength) and Hoban (2:57, even-strength) notched five-consecutive goals to make it 13-6.
Oregon State cut into the margin as Lucas Rodgers (Sr., Lake Oswego, Ore.) and Burton Jaursch (Sr., Lake Oswego, Calif.) lined in shots at 1:37 and 56 seconds for the 13-8 final score.
For Villanova, Dougherty, Farrell, Hoban and Marvin each racked up pairs of goals to join with King in accounting for all of the Wildcats’ offense. In cage, James Terhune (So., Darien, Conn.) reeled off three saves to earn the win.
Wu led the way for Oregon State with three goals. Gomez (two), Rodgers (one), Jaursch (one) and Bohme (one) also flipped over the scoreboard with goalie Jacob Roeder (Jr., Oakland, Calif.) making six saves.
Due to the defeat, Oregon State falls into a 13th/15th Place game as the Beavers will take on Atlantic Division runner-up Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (Virginia Tech) at 8:40 p.m. on Saturday, November 10. The winner of the game will tie with the victor of another 13th/15th Place game between Southeast Division Champion the University of Alabama and No. 14/New York Division Champion the United States Military Academy, while the loser will tie with the fallen from the Crimson Tide-vs.-Cadets game for 15th.
| 1st Q | 2nd Q | 3rd Q | 4th Q | – | FINAL | |
| Oregon State University | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | – | 8 |
| Villanova University | 5 | 2 | 1 | 5 | – | 13 |
| Villanova Goals: | Greg King (5); Thomas Dougherty (2); Connor Farrell (2); Matt Hoban (2); Will Marvin (2) | |||||
| Oregon State Goals: | Connor Wu (3); Santiago Gomez (2); Lucas Rodgers; Burton Jaursch; Carl Bohme | |||||
| Saves: | Villanova – James Terhune (3) ; Oregon State – Jacob Roeder (6) | |||||
| Exclusions: | Villanova – 3 ; Oregon State – 6 | |||||
| Advantage Opportunities: | Villanova – 3-for-6 ; Oregon State – 1-for-3 | |||||
| Sprints: | Villanova – 1-for-4 (2nd) ; Oregon State – 3-for-4 (1st, 3rd, 4th) | |||||
| Cards/Misconducts: | None | |||||
| Officials: | John Rightmyer, Tony Karaman | |||||
Oregon State University’s Brendan Murphy
Villanova University’s Greg King
