LI's O'Reilly takes advantage of chance
Virginia attacker Nick O'Reilly is pressured by Cornell midfielder Cody Levine in the NCAA Division I men's lacrosse national quarterfinals at Shuart Stadium, Hempstead, NY. (May 21, 2011) Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Entering Saturday's NCAA Tournament men's lacrosse quarterfinal, Virginia sophomore Nick O'Reilly of South Side had more DNPs listed on his stat sheet than goals.
The former Newsday All-Long Island attack sat out the Cavaliers' first three games this season and was not used in last week's playoff game against Bucknell. That made it five Did Not Plays and four goals. But O'Reilly is persistent, not pessimistic. "I've been in and out of the lineup all season, depending on the matchups and the situation," he said. "We have a lot of guys fighting for spots at attack. It keeps all of us sharp and focused in practice."
The third attack spot, alongside high-scoring stars Steele Stanwick and Chris Bocklet, has been a revolving door all season for Virginia. On Saturday, in a 13-9 victory over Cornell at Hofstra's Shuart Stadium, O'Reilly rang the buzzer.
He was inserted at the start of the second quarter with the Cavliers trailing 4-3. For a quiet player trying to find an identity in a big-time college program, O'Reilly certainly made a splashy entrance. He took a sharp feed from Stanwick and unleashed a spectacular, no-look, behind-the-neck shot that beat Big Red goalie A.J. Fiore to tie the score at 4.
"I got a great pass from Steele but I was running at an angle and was almost past the cage," O'Reilly said. "It was pure instinct. I wasn't thinking about it at the time, but after I ran past the cage and saw it went in, I thought, 'You don't want to miss a shot like that.' But when you're at a sharp angle, sometimes it's the only shot you have. It's the first time I've ever scored on it in college."
A little more than two minutes later, O'Reilly cut to the net and Stanwick found him for a short-side goal that gave Virginia a 6-4 lead. O'Reilly capped a 7-0 second period and game-changing 9-0 burst by hitting Bocklet in front for a crushing goal with 16.5 seconds left in the half to make it 10-4.
Virginia coach Dom Starsia said he felt confident putting O'Reilly in for starter Matt White "because Nick's a hair quicker and Cornell has the quickest set of short sticks and long poles in the country. We try and mix-and-match our people. When they shut off Matt, we went to Nick, and he made a couple of plays right away."
No DNP this time.
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