CHARLOTTESVILLE — Payton Cormier wasn’t keeping count as his record-setting day at Klöckner Stadium unfolded. But his teammates were well aware of what the Virginia attackman was accomplishing.
“Once it got close, everyone wanted to see me get it, and they were putting me in good positions to be able to score. I’m just fortunate I have really good teammates around me,” Cormier said.
Virginia (11-5), which snapped a four-game losing streak, will meet third-seeded Johns Hopkins or Lehigh in a quarterfinal May 19 in Towson, Md. Johns Hopkins hosts Lehigh at noon Sunday.
Tewaaraton Award finalist Connor Shellenberger had two goals and five assists for Virginia, which will play in the quarterfinals for the fifth consecutive tournament.
Shellenberger assisted on three of Cormier’s goals, including the record-setter with 7:56 left in the third quarter. Cormier’s man-up goal made it 15-8 as the Cavaliers pulled away from the feisty, physical Hawks (12-4). Teammates quickly surrounded Cormier to celebrate his record, and the ball was tossed to the sideline.
“Payton put the ball in some tiny little spots sometimes,” Virginia Coach Lars Tiffany said. “I thought the goalie for St. Joe’s was anticipating well where the ball was going, but Payton still snuck it just between the body and the pipe. What a gifted scorer.”
In addition to the NCAA goals record, Cormier also broke Virginia’s single-season goals record; he has 63, two more than Xander Dickson’s mark set last year. His single-game total was the most in Virginia postseason history and tied for its most in a game, and it was one shy of the NCAA tournament record.
He has 32 postseason goals, also a Virginia record and one more than Shellenberger. Both passed Matt Ward’s mark of 30 on Saturday.
“I felt like there were times we had a guy on him and they just threw it to him and he just caught it in traffic and put it away,” St. Joseph’s Coach Taylor Wray said. “We lost track of him a couple of times on the perimeter. If he gets open looks, he puts them in the back of the net. There are other times I thought we had people in good positions and he just made plays.”
Carter Page scored three goals for the Hawks, who were making their second NCAA appearance. St. Joseph’s employs a 10-man ride, a high-risk, high-reward strategy that applies extensive pressure and often leads to turnovers and transition scoring opportunities. Tiffany said the Cavaliers prepared for it all week, but they initially struggled to contend with it, bungling four clears in the first quarter.
Yet Virginia was efficient when it managed to get into its offensive end, shooting 6 for 12 in the first 15 minutes.
“That 10-man ride really frustrated us, and we still had six goals in the first quarter,” Tiffany said. “I was like, ‘Fellas, if we can just keep the ball in our offense’s hands …’ ”
After Page’s extra-man goal to open the second quarter brought the Hawks within 6-5, Virginia cleaned things up. The Cavaliers didn’t commit a turnover in the second quarter, getting three goals from Cormier as they stretched their advantage to 11-6.
Cormier scored his sixth and seventh goals in the first two minutes of the second half, and St. Joseph’s never cut its deficit to less than five from there. That ended a rare swoon for the Cavaliers, who were on their longest skid since a six-game slide in 2013.
“We didn’t win a game in over a month,” Cormier said. “I think the good part about it is once the postseason comes, it’s a different season. Everybody’s 0-0, and everybody’s battling to get [to] 4-0. It starts with the first game. We were fortunate enough to come out on a good end. We start our postseason 1-0, and hopefully we can build on that.”
