(Photo Courtesy of Jacksonville Athletics)
The Jacksonville Dolphins continued their impressive season on Thursday as they blew past VMI 13-5 to advance to their first SoCon title game since 2018.
Jackson Intrieri and Jacob Greiner each netted hat tricks to lead the way for the Dolphins in the victory. Luke Millican made 10 saves to anchor the Jacksonville defense and Nathan Kapp went 16-for-20 at the faceoff dot.
The Dolphins led wire-to-wire, taking an early 2-0 lead and never looking back. Jack Burke got VMI on the board to make it a one-goal, 2-1, game late in the first quarter and Kyle Webster found the back of the net in the second quarter to cut the Dolphins lead to 5-2. That is as close as the Keydets would get the rest of the night with the Dolphins outscoring the Keydets 8-3 through the remainder of the contest.
VMI had five different goal-scorers. Jack Liselli made 14 saves in cage.
Richmond Edges High Point
With 1:07 left, Lance Madonna took it into the heart of the defense and put home what was ultimately the game-winner for Richmond in a game that saw nine ties (four in the second half) as the two SoCon heavyweights traded punches all night.
High Point won the ensuing faceoff and called a timeout, out of which Asher Nolting got off one final shot in a Panthers uniform. Zach Vigue was there to stop it and seal the victory for the Spiders.
Madonna’s game-winner gave Richmond the win and marked just the third time the Spiders had jumped ahead in the second half. Luke Frankeny put home a man-up score late in the third quarter to make it a 9-9 game before Ryan Lanchbury scored the first goal of the fourth quarter to push Richmond ahead 10-9. It marked the first time the Spiders had grabbed the lead since the second quarter.
An Asher Nolting score sparked a four-goal High Point run to start the second quarter and put the Panthers ahead 6-4 after previously trailing 4-2. From that point on, Richmond was playing catchup while High Point was trying to stay ahead.
Ryan Dunn (1G/4A) and Luke Frankeny (5G) lead the way for Richmond. Jared Chenoy went 13-for-20 at the faceoff dot and Zach Vigue made 18 saves, facing a High Point offense that took 46 shots and put 29 on cage.
Brayden Mayea (2G/3A) and Asher Nolting (3G) led the Panthers. Jack Vanoverbeke also had two goals and one assist. Parker Green made eight saves in cage.
Jacksonville and Richmond will play in the SoCon title game at noon on Saturday.
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