Virginia is pouring in goals under new coach Lars Tiffany’s run-and-gun regime, and attackman Mike D’Amario has been one of the biggest beneficiaries.
D’Amario scored seven goals (on eight shots), one shy of a school record, to help the Cavaliers pull away from Drexel in an 18-15 shootout Saturday. He is the Epoch/US Lacrosse Player of the Week.
“He is a natural born scorer,” Tiffany said of D’Amario. “That man steps on the field and he wants to shoot the ball every time he touches it. He reminds of some of those guys that are like ‘Hey, if I’m a 35-percent shooter and I miss my first 10, then you better watch out, because I’m a 35 percent shooter and I’m going to get to my ratio.’ He just has that instinct.
“Scoring seven? I’m not sure we expected that, because we’ve really been a well-balanced offense in practice and in the first couple of scrimmages and games. Fortunately, he was feeling it, because a couple of our other attackmen weren’t, so we needed him to step up.”
Two of D’Amario’s goals came during a four-goal third-quarter run after the Dragons had pulled within one before halftime.