Lexington, Va. -- Washington & Lee posted a 7-1 scoring advantage in the second and third periods, and held off a late VMI run to win the 20th Annual Lee-Jackson Classic 8-4 at Foster Stadium. The 18th ranked Generals (7-3, 2-0) used a balanced scoring attack, along with a career-best performance by senior goalie Chris Lalli to pick up their sixth straight win and second straight decision in the annual series against the Keydets (1-8, 0-3).

VMI freshman goalie Sean McCoy kept the Keydets in the contest with a host of great saves, and was named the Keydets Worrell-Fallon Award recipient after a ten-save performance. Meanwhile, W&L's Lalli stopped a career- high 21 shots in the today's game, and was his team's Worrell-Fallon Award winner for the second straight year.

The Generals were able to overcome a 22-shot fourth period from the Keydets thanks to Lalli, who recorded 12 of his 21 saves in the final frame. Another telling stat was told at the X , as Washington & Lee won the final 12 attempts of the game after VMI's Lowell Patterson won two of the first three to open up play.

The Generals wasted little time scoring today as sophomore Fogo Seldon Clarke took the opening face-off that set up Ned Rider's opening goal just eight seconds into the game. However, VMI's Matt Harrison evened things up at the 12:18 mark by scoring on an assisted strike from Steve Long.

The ensuing 13+ minutes produced no goals until Jim Ryan put Washington & Lee ahead for the second time with his first goal of the game. Harry St. John added another goal for the Generals with 4:26 remaining in the half, while Rider rounded out the opening half scoring by connecting with just five ticks remaining on the clock.

After Charlie Clarke scored the fourth straight W&L goal to open the third period, VMI's Kevin Hill put home the first of his two goals in the game to halt the run, cutting the score to 5-2. However, the General's weren't done as they rattled off three straight goals to close out the third period.

As mentioned, VMI fired off 22 shots in the final frame, but were only able to come away with two goals. Hill and freshman Bobby Davis each scored in the fourth, but Lalli turned away a handful of point-blank shot attempts to preserve the win for Washington & Lee.

The Keydets out shot W&L in the contest by a 38-29 margin, and scooped up 45 groundballs to 43 for the Generals. However, W&L was able to control the tempo in today's contest by winning 13-15 face-offs, all won by Clarke.

The Keydets next return to conference play this weekend as they travel to Philadelphia to square off with the St. Joseph's Hawks on Saturday, April 7 at Finnesey Field. Game time is set for 1:00 p.m.

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LEXINGTON, Va. -- Senior goalkeeper Chris Lalli (Cranbury, N.J./Princeton) posted a career-high 21 saves in leading Washington and Lee to an 8-4 victory over VMI in the 20th Annual Lee-Jackson Lacrosse Classic on Wednesday afternoon at VMI's Alumni Memorial Stadium. Lalli and VMI freshman goalkeeper Sean McCoy were named the winners of the Worrell-Fallon Award as the game MVPs.

Washington and Lee (7-3) opened the scoring just eight seconds into the game as junior attackman Ned Rider (Manakin-Sabot, Va./Collegiate) scored off an assist from sophomore attackman Tim Skeen (Baltimore, Md./Towson). The Keydets (1-8) tied the score just 2:34 later as junior attackman Matt Harrison scored off a feed from senior midfielder Steve Long, but the Generals scored three unanswered goals in the second quarter to assume a 4-1 lead at halftime.

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2007-04-04