Mar. 31st, 2002 - Battle of Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech; This time with no thunderstorms!

By Mike Cummins (Asst. Webmaster USLIA.com/SELC Correspondent)

Blacksburg, VA: A mild day in southwest Virginia under partly sunny skies and a smaller than usual crowd due to the Easter holiday weekend saw the battle of the Techs in Blacksburg. Not on the gridiron and no lightning to report this time. But rather the Hokie Bowl was the location and the familiar smell of the neighboring Dairy complex on campus.

#9 Virginia Tech (8-3, 6-0) would control the opening faceoff, but it would take three minutes before Matt Robarge would fire the cannon from top left putting VT on top 1-0. Georgia Tech (4-3, 3-3) would respond at 9:54 as Jaeger garnered his first of many scores on the day on a Dvoran feed. At 8:35 Paul Thayer would score unassisted and a minute later a GT slashing call would bring out the Hokies EMO. Matt Robarge netted #2 on a Chris Vohrer feed. Adam Gail would score the next two Hokie goals on feeds from Chris Vohrer at 4:30 and Chris Corey at 3:43. Virginia Tech would have one more EMO opportunity before the period ended.

The second quarter started ho-hum until freshman defender Justin Forrel was called for a cross check at 13:15. It took the GT EMO just five seconds to capitalize as Dvoran scored unassisted. At 12:49 GT would get another EMO from a VT slashing call, with 7 seconds to go in the penalty, Ryan Singer took a feed from Gavin Mosher to score the only man down goal of the day. On GT's next EMO, senior goalie Ben Gogol would make a spectacular point blank save against a GT shooter on the crease. This save was one of the many highlights for both goalies on the afternoon. At 4:21 Oakley put in GT's third score of the day. The Hokies responded less than a minute later as Vohrer took a feed from Thayer. In what VT Coach Joel Nachlas described as "the reason we need to get ground balls", Vohrer would scoop up the ground ball on the next faceoff and drive alone to the goal to put VT up 8-3. The half would end 9-3 after Thayer got a feed from Vohrer at 36 seconds.

At halftime, Coach Nachlas stated that "we are playing better than normal, but not doing well on ground balls, but what we are working on [in practice] is coming through."

The second half started off with a bang quite literally at 13:42 when Georgia Tech's Jarrell threw an illegal body check to the head. It took the VT EMO 31 seconds to find Vohrer from Scott Mackrides. 90 seconds later the Jackets would respond as Jaeger chalked another tally. The play would continue almost 9 minutes scoreless until Gavin Mosher took a Chris Corey feed for a Hokie goal at 2:59. Jaeger would score again at 2:29 drawing the score to 11-5. VT got a slashing call on the same play. Unfortunately for the VT MDD, a pass went errant, richocheted off a VT defenders stick and into the VT goal, GT got the EMO goal off a 'team goal' for the Hokies. With 31 seconds left, GT's Jarrell was called for another illegal body check and was ejected for 5 minutes in personals, consisting of four illegal body checks and one slashing call. The third quarter ended 11-6 in favor of the Hokies.

Virginia Tech would strike first in the fourth at 14:09 as Blair Hoyt scored unassisted increasing the VT lead to 6 goals. Not to be outdone, the Hokies Matt Robarge added another back of the net at 10:45 as he dodged and beat his defender. GT would reel off four straight responses from Jaeger unassisted at 8:29 and 6:02. At 3:09 Pallota scored from Bridges and then Jaeger again at 2:19. Virginia Tech would score its last goal at 1:39 as Gavin Mosher buried Paul Thayer's feed. GT would score once more as time expired, Jaeger from Kronthau to bring the final, VT 14, GT 11.

After the game, Georgia Tech Head Coach Ken Lovic noted the good effort by both squads. "Great effort by both teams. Virginia Tech is very talented. Both teams played tremendously and this was a great game."

Couldn't have said it better myself Coach. The Hokies are at #6 Auburn in the huge SELC game that will most likely determine which squad gets the # 1 seed for the 2002 SELC tournament in Chattanooga. However, first the Yellow Jackets host the #6 Auburn Tigers on Thursday evening in Atlanta.

Box Score
Team: 1st - 2nd - 3rd - 4th = Final
GT: 1 - 2 - 3 - 5 = 11
VT: 5 - 4 - 2 - 3 = 14

Scoring
Virginia Tech - Thayer (2,2), Corey (0,2), Vohrer (3,3), Mosher (2,1), Robarge (3,0), Gail (2,0), Singer (1,0), Mackrides (0,1), Hoyt (1,0).
Georgia Tech - Jaeger (8,0), Dvoran (1,1), Oakley (1,0), Pallota (1,0), Bridges (0,1), Kronthau (0,1)

Statistics
Ground Balls: GT 52, VT 63
Shots: GT 26, VT 37
Saves: GT (Wojocheikski) 12, VT 14 (Gogol)
Clears: GT 15/29, VT 22/33
Faceoffs: GT 12/24, VT 12/24
Penalty Minutes: GT 9:00, VT 5:00
Attendance 150<