HAMPDEN-SYDNEY, Va. -- Senior Ray O'Brien (Scituate, MA) scored five goals including his 100th career goal to lead Hampden-Sydney College to a 24-8 victory over Southern Virginia University, Saturday morning at Lewis C. Everett Stadium. Senior Ford Burke (Richmond) scored five goals and tallied two assists while fellow classmate Michael Leone (Vienna) scored four goals and added an assist.

"I thought today was a solid overall team effort and it was awesome to be back in Lewis C. Everett Stadium," said head coach Jason Rostan '03. "Every man gave high energy today. Congratulations to Ray O'Brien for his 100th career goal, a great milestone in our program. We're looking forward to an important stretch ahead of us over the next two weeks."

It was the Tigers who got the first goal on the board in the first quarter, as O'Brien picked up a ground ball in front of the net and applied the finish. The score doubled has Burke received the ball on the far side of the field, faked a pass attempt to freeze the defender and then blew by his man to finish over the goalie's shoulder. The lead was pushed to three as junior Gaines Weis (Richmond) caused a turnover in the defensive end and found senior Matt Gemmell (Charlottesville) streaking forward as he ran down the field finding Burke on his right side for the quick finish. O'Brien got his second as he got the ball behind the net, taking a few steps to his right before spinning past his defender and wrapping around the net to finish into the top left corner. The Knights got one back before a minute later O'Brien got his hat trick as he took the ball up top on the right and got a screen from sophomore Davis Mack (Richmond) and unleashed a shot into the bottom right corner to make it 5-1 H-SC and close out the scoring in the first quarter.

The second quarter started just like the first did for H-SC, as junior Conor Kilfeather (Wyndmoor, PA) went up and over to knock the ball away from a Knights' player, grabbing the loose ball and taking it all the to the net and beating the at the near post. Southern Virginia answered with a goal following the goal by H-SC, in which the Tigers responded as junior Campion White (Apex, NC) received the pass from senior Patrick Saunders (Alexandria) on the left side, only turning to face the goal before rifling a shot into the top of the net. There was little time before goal seven and goal eight for H-SC, as on the ensuing face-off, Kilfeather picked up the ball and found Weis who fired a pass through two defenders to Leone to wind-up and fire it home. The Knights answered the two-goal run by H-SC with a goal of their own to cut the lead down to five. The Tigers, however, had another answer, as less than a minute later the lead was back to six as Saunders hesitated left and beat his man right before firing an inch-perfect shot into the top left corner. The Saunders-to-White connection struck again with 4:20 remaining before half as Saunders dumped a pass off to White for the rocket finish into the top right corner. H-SC had time for one goal before the halftime whistle, as Burke rolled around the right side of the net and found O'Brien calling for the pass up top for a quick wind-up and finish.

Southern Virginia opened the second half strong, scoring two unanswered goals in less than two minutes of action. The Tigers answered the two-goal run just over four minutes later, as Burke worked his way around two defenders and into some space to fire off a shot past the goalie. 12 seconds later the Tigers struck again, following a shot where they kept possession, Burke took it himself from the whistle, firing a left-handed shot into the top of the net. Another 10 seconds later and it was a third goal for H-SC, as sophomore Luke Popow (Holly Springs, NC) got a clean face-off win and ran from midfield until he drew a defender to open the pass to Leone who applied the finish. Similar to Burke earlier in the quarter, Mack took the ball after retaining possession following a shot and took the ball to the net, firing a shot off the chest of the goalie that found its way past and into the back of the net. Just over three minutes later, Southern Virginia stopped the four-goal run by H-SC, so it responded with a three-goal run to end the quarter. The run was started by Leone who got the cross-goal pass from Burke and got the goalie out of position before finishing into the open net. Burke scored his fifth of the evening, as he faked out his defender to be unchallenged on the side of the net and calmly bounced home the finish. The final goal of the run was the 100th for O'Brien, after receiving the ball from Leone, he made two men miss and had a diving finish across goal to make it 18-6 after 45 minutes of action.

The Garnet and Grey kept it rolling in the fourth quarter, as senior Luke Helfgott (Arlington) intercepted a pass and took advantage of the defense not being set up as he ran at the goal and finished down low. Junior Harry Deller (Baltimore, MD) scored his first goal as a Tiger to push the lead to 14, as Helfgott found him up top and he made a fake to his right before firing a left-handed shot into the bottom right corner. After a goal by the Knights, the Tigers picked up a long rebound off the crossbar and had the numbers on the Knights, with freshman Ryan Estay (Cypress, TX) picking up a pass and playing a simple pass to senior Jack Hall (Norfolk) for the bottom right finish. The Tigers took advantage of the only two man-up opportunities they had in the game, first coming with 5:11 left in the game, as O'Brien found Leone right in front of the net and Leone finished a spinning shot for the goal. The second man-up goal came just 25 seconds later, as freshman Landon Honig (Glen Allen) fired a sidearm shot into the top of the net off the pass from junior Griff Ray (Lexington). The two teams traded the final two goals, with Southern Virginia getting the first, before sophomore Evan Yntema (Summerfield, NC) took it straight off his face-off win and beat the goalie with a bounce shot to take the game to 24-8 in favor of H-SC.

Senior Peter Smith (Warrenton) got his first career win in net, making three saves.

The Tigers will be back in action on Tuesday, February 20, when they hit the road for the first time to take on Pfeiffer University. The game is scheduled to begin a 7 p.m. at Irwin Belk Stadium in Wingate, North Carolina.