Louisville City Wire

Della Rocco nets six goals as Knights roll past VMI 17-6

There were highlights aplenty for the Bellarmine lacrosse team as the Knights rolled past the visiting Keydets from Virginia Military Institute 17-6 in a nonconference game at Owsley B. Frazier Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

 

Among BU's offensive highlights was the six-goal, one-assist performance by Christian Della Rocco.  The six goals tie the program record for most in a game.  Interestingly, the last time a Knight had six scores in a game was last season when Brayden Brown poured in six at VMI. 

 

Another milestone also was achieved on the offensive end with Kyle Playsted chalking up career point No. 100.  The attackman from Calgary, Alberta finished with five points on the day with two goals and three assists to give him 103 career points, which is just two shy of Landon Trout for second place on the all-time list.

 

Another highlight for Bellarmine was at the faceoff x," where Aidan Fearn and Grant Guthrie combined to go 17 for 27 in draws.  Both FOGOs also turned their successes into offense with Fearn scoring a goal and dishing out two assists.  Guthrie also notched a goal, the first of his collegiate career.

 

In fact, Fearn and Guthrie scored in back-to-back plays to open the fourth period.  On the opening faceoff of the final quarter, Fearn made a clean pickup and raced downfield to score just eight seconds into the period.  Guthrie then duplicated the feat on the ensuing faceoff to give the Knights two goals in just 16 seconds.

 

"I was extremely happy for our faceoff unit," said Bellarmine Coach Andrew Whitley. "They were able to tilt the possession count, and when that happens, our offense can be really lethal."

 

Bellarmine, which won its fourth in a row to improve to 4-1 on the season, played at a high level for pretty much the entire 60 minutes. 

 

The Knights jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, and after the Keydets trimmed the score to 3-2, the Bellarmine defense responded by shutting out VMI for the rest of the first half. Meanwhile, the offense got revved back up as the Knights went into the locker room with a 9-2 at halftime.

 

After the break, VMI struck first with the teams trading two goals apiece in the third quarter. The final period got off to the hot start for Bellarmine thanks to their successes in the faceoff game, and the Knights coasted the rest of the way for the 17-6 victory.

"It was a total team effort today," Whitley said.  "I was really happy with how we came out and just focused on executing our plan and playing simple, disciplined lacrosse.  We just stayed the course with our processes, and it was great to see guys being rewarded for making winning lacrosse plays.

 

Although the Bellarmine offense had much to celebrate today, Whitley said defense is still the strength of his Bellarmine squad.  "Hats off to our defense," he said. "We continue to be a defense-driven program, and this is the fourth consecutive game with a shutout quarter.  Coach (Nicholas) Marks deserves a ton of credit for preparing our guys and Brady Long, Nicholas Sheremetta, and Jacob Berggren are developing some real chemistry down low. JC Higginbotham continues to provide consistency. That combination will allow us to be in most contests when playoff time rolls around."

 

Higginbotham turned in another solid performance between the pipes with 10 saves and a 62.5 save percentage before giving way to Dante Batista, who played the final 6:35 and made two saves without allowing a score.  Overall. The Bellarmine defense helped win the turnover battle with 19 takeaways while BU committed just 11 turnovers.  The Knights also held a 31-20 edge in ground balls.

 

Whitley added that his 2023 offense is becoming one of the best attacks that he's coached. "Kyle Playsted, Christian Della Rocco and Benny O'Rourk complement each other so well and the unselfishness they play with is really great to watch," he said.

 

For the game, Bellarmine outshot VMI 50-33 and held a 30-18 advantage in shots on goal.  The Knights also went 21-for21 in clears today.

 

"A great overall effort by our guys," said Whitley.  "We are in a good place right now as we head into our final nonconference game at Marquette next week. That'll be a great test as they are playing great ball themselves right now."

 

The Keydets, who see their record fall to 3-3 on the season, were led by Will Duffy with two goals on the day.

Original source can be found here.