As graduation day approaches for Richmond senior Benny Pugh, the future is not short on possibilities for the program’s standard-setting goalkeeper.

Pugh, who majors in biology and is an avid hunter and fisherman, used to envision himself as a veterinarian. He now says he wants to stay in touch with wildlife, but maybe as an environmental science teacher. Remaining connected to the game he has played every year since third grade also appeals strongly to Pugh, who says he might choose a career in coaching.

But the job that excites Pugh the most right now clearly is the one he performs so skillfully between the pipes for the No. 12 Spiders, who, in their fourth year of NCAA Division I competition, are looking capable of making significant noise in May.

With a 14-man senior class showing the way under fourth-year head coach Dan Chemotti, the Spiders (7-1) are anchored by one of the stingiest defenses in the sport. And the man leading that senior-dominated unit continues to stifle opposing shooters in ways that amaze and spoil his coaches and teammates.

A fourth-year starter in goal at Richmond, where he was recognized two years ago as the top stopper in the Southern Conference and has been one of the more proficient goalies in the game over his career, the 6-feet-4, 215-pound Pugh is playing his best lacrosse in his final go-round with the Spiders.

In the wake of a 16-save effort that featured a first-half shutout in Saturday’s 13-6 rout at Jacksonville, Pugh and the Spiders’ defense are riding atop the NCAA rankings.

Richmond has allowed 5.63 goals per game, while its man-down unit has killed penalties at a clip of 89.5 percent, both NCAA bests. Pugh has allowed 5.49 goals per game and has saved 69.1 percent of the shots he has faced – each best in the nation – while averaging 12 saves per outing.

Opponents are shooting just 19.1 percent against the Spiders. Pugh already has been recognized three times this year as SoCon Defensive Player of the Week.

“When you talk about goalies, you typically get a big guy who fills up the goal and isn’t all that quick, or you get a smaller guy who is really quick. Benny is both,” says Paul Richards, Richmond’s defensive coordinator.

“[Pugh] is one of the main reasons we’re able to play the way we do on defense,” Richards says, alluding to the Spiders’ aggressive, pressing philosophy that includes a 10-man ride and occasionally leaves Pugh exposed to one-on-one confrontations. “We like to extend our defense and slide aggressively. We don’t change much, based on who we’re playing. Usually, you want your goalie to make the saves he should make and steal one or two. Benny usually steals four or five for us. Without him, [our defense] wouldn’t work.”

Ask defending national champion North Carolina how it’s working at Richmond, which has yet to allow an opponent to score in double digits in 2017.

Five days before the Jacksonville game, Pugh made an indelible mark in a driving rainstorm in Chapel Hill. Pugh saved 11 shots and scooped three critical ground balls to lift Richmond to a 6-5 upset over then seventh-ranked Carolina.

It marked Richmond’s first-ever win over the Tar Heels, and it came a year after the Spiders traveled to Durham and for the first time beat Duke, which was one year removed from winning back-to-back NCAA titles. Pugh starred with 11 saves and two ground balls in the 12-10 victory.

In the Carolina win on March 13, Pugh made several clutch, point-blank saves, including two against junior attackman Chris Cloutier, the Most Outstanding Player in last year’s NCAA tournament.

Last ditch effort from Chris Cloutier comes up short. @SpiderMLAX wins 6-5. pic.twitter.com/MmDAu0gYwD

— Dan Aburn (@danaburn2423) March 14, 2017

“Benny doesn’t flinch. In close, he is unbelievable,” says senior defenseman Ryan Dennis, who allowed one shot by Carolina attackman Luke Goldstock.

Dennis is one of the team’s four-year defensive stalwarts that also include defenseman Brendan Hynes and short-stick midfielders A.J. Lapitino and Michael Burns. Junior LSM Austin Cates is a three-year starter.

“Beyond 12 yards, the shooter is definitely in trouble [against Pugh],” Hynes says. “When guys get open and think they have a really good shot, Benny can still make an incredible save. Two things that come to mind when I think of Benny are hard-working and reliable.”

“Our offense tends to have some bad days in practice,” Dennis says. “When we screw up our coverage, Benny bails us out [with one-on-one saves]. We’ll go from absolute panic – because we’re about to get scored on – to seeing Benny make some sick save.”

Ever since he took over the starting job two games into his freshman season, after splitting time with former Spider Connor Shannon, Pugh has been Richmond’s rock in the net. Only an appendectomy suffered after the eighth game in 2016 interrupted Pugh, who returned several weeks later and eventually won back his starting job in the SoCon tournament final, a 9-8 overtime loss in overtime to Air Force.

After an arduous offseason of conditioning and extra work in the cage, Pugh is at the top of his game again, sporting some of the quickest hands in the nation.

“The goalie position fits my skill set more than any other,” says Pugh, who played attack and midfield over two seasons, before first picking up a goalie’s stick as a fifth-grader. “The biggest part of my game has always been natural reflexes. I don’t ever remember being afraid to get hit [by a hard shot]. I’ve broken both thumbs three times. By high school, I’d been hit enough to feel like I’d seen the worst of it.”

A native of Powhatan, Va., where he learned to hunt and fish from his father, Bill, Pugh grew up a 45-minute drive from the Richmond campus. He nearly ended up 400 miles from home at St. John’s in Queens, N.Y.

A three-year starter in goal and a two-year captain at Woodberry Forest School, Pugh took official visits to Division III Tufts and to St. John’s, where he originally signed a letter of intent – before reconsidering after his official visit.

The idea of attending Richmond originally lacked appeal, since Chemotti was charting a new program. At first, Pugh was attracted to the established Division I operation at St. John’s, where coach Jason Miller is currently coaching his 11th season.

“I first visited St. John’s in the summer before my senior year, with no students around, and I liked it a lot,” Pugh says. “But after I went back for my official visit, something about the environment didn’t click with me.

“Where I grew up, you were in the woods with a gun [hunting deer] in November and December, and you got your fishing pole out for a couple of months in the summer,” says Benny Pugh, who still takes advantage of the numerous freshwater ponds in the Richmond countryside and does small-mouth fishing in the James River.

“I felt like I’d rushed my [St. John’s] decision,” he says. “It was my first college offer and I jumped at it. But then I decided it just didn’t feel right at St. John’s. Queens was a big change from Powhatan.”

“We’re driving back home after the visit, and it was like a light switch,” Bill Pugh recalls. “My wife [Angela] and I are buying St. John’s tee shirts and stuff on their website, and Benny says he’s feeling like he made the wrong decision. We’re like, ‘What do you mean?’”

Miller released Pugh from his commitment. Suddenly he was a goalie without a home, wondering if college lacrosse was in his immediate future – that is, until Greg Conklin, an assistant coach at Woodberry Forest and an ex-high school teammate of Chemotti’s at West Genesee in Syracuse, passed his endorsement of Pugh onto Richmond’s new coach.

“Benny kind of fell into our lap,” says Chemotti. “I didn’t know anything about him until he got in touch with us. He’d had a change of heart about St. John’s before I even got here [in November of 2012 after leaving Loyola’s coaching staff].”

Chemotti first watched Pugh play as a senior at Woodberry Forest. He also gauged Pugh’s talent at a player’s camp on the Richmond campus. Chemotti, a former attackman and a 2002 graduate of Duke who helped the Blue Devils reach four NCAA tournaments and win back-to-back ACC titles, personally shot on Pugh during what Pugh recalls as a “very intimidating 30 minutes.”

By the time Pugh got busy at Richmond with the rest of a hugely important incoming class in the fall of 2013, the Spiders were taking notice. Pugh had the physical presence, calm demeanor, decision-making ability and footwork – and those quick hands – that suggested good things were to come.

“Goalies are either crazy lunatics who are the life of the room, or they’re a more serious, witty, quiet type. Benny is definitely the latter,” Dennis says. “I couldn’t read him at first. But I could tell pretty quickly that we were going to be OK at goalie.”

The Spiders broke out of the gate memorably in 2014 by playing Virginia extremely tough and losing by a goal. The Spiders lost four more times, before breaking through with the school’s first victory, 12-10.

In what still counts as a personal highlight to Chemotti, Pugh made a huge, point-blank save on a 1-0 fast break with less than two minutes left and Richmond protecting an 11-10 lead.

COURTESY PF RICHMOND ATHLETICS

“It was like a penalty shot,” Chemotti says. “For a second, I’m thinking we might be headed to overtime. Then Benny stopped it.”

The Spiders finished 6-11 that year, and got significantly better by season’s end. Then came a huge breakthrough, as the fourth-seeded Spiders upended top-seeded Mercer and second-seeded High Point to win the SoCon and qualify automatically for the NCAA tournament.

The losing seasons ended right there. In 2015, with Pugh leading the defense by making the all-conference first team and finishing second in the nation in goals-against average (7.42) and save percentage (.590), Richmond went 11-5 to win the regular-season SoCon title. But the Spiders went down in double OT to High Point in the league tournament championship game.

The Spiders finished 11-5 last year and wound up second in league play with a 6-1 record. But, after demolishing High Point by 11 goals in the tournament semifinals, Richmond came up just short against Air Force.

After working diligently to get back on the field following the appendectomy that sidelined him in late March last year, Pugh says he has never been more dogged in his preparation for a season. Judging by the way he is stuffing opposing shooters, bouncing out of the goal to snare ground balls and snapping off accurate outlet passes, Pugh might be saving his best season for last.

“Being a fourth-year guy, I know it’s the extra work that gets you where you want to be,” he says. “I’ve done everything I can to put myself in the best position.

“Whether it’s executing a slide package or covering a guy at X or rolling somebody back to his off hand, we know what we’re doing,” he adds. “My motor is rooted in the fact that we’re still a young program and we’re being targeted because we’re good. The memory of hearing Duke or Carolina players complaining about our defense is a highlight to me.

“Success is relative in this program. But it’s hard to convince our defense that there is a better unit out there. That’s not false confidence. We’ve established a standard.”