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Virginia scored five unanswered goals midway through the contest to pull away and gain a 12-8 win over Maryland before 5048 fans this afternoon at Klöckner Stadium.

The game was the first Atlantic Coast Conference contest of the year for the Cavaliers, who improve to 8-1 this season with their eighth consecutive win. Maryland saw its five-game winning streak end as the Terrapins fall to 7-3 this season.

Ben Rubeor, the nation’s leading scorer, led the way for Virginia once again with five goals and one assist. He has scored 34 goals and tallied 49 total points in just nine games. Overall the Virginia attack accounted for 10 goals and four assists.

Bryn Holmes put the Terrapins on the board first with the first goal of his career barely two minutes in with a fast break goal.

The Cavaliers scored twice in a 27-second span a minute later as Rubeor and Brian Carroll found the back of the net.

Maryland retook the lead on goals by Max Ritz and Drew Evans midway through the opening quarter.

“I thought that we were actually a little bit surprised by the pace of play early on,” said Virginia head coach Dom Starsia. “I thought Maryland took it to us in the first five or six minutes. I was very pleased that we responded to that, especially defensively.”

The back-and-forth scoring continued as Rubeor scored twice in the final 6:18 to give UVa a 4-3 lead going into the second period.

Dan Groot forced the fourth tie of the first half with the first of his two goals at the 11:49 mark of the second quarter.

Following Groot’s goal, the Virginia defense held the Terrapins scoreless for more than 19 minutes, while the Cavalier offense controlled the flow and scored five times in that span.

“I thought by early in the second quarter that we were moving our feet much more and we were attentive and alert at the defensive end of the field, and that that was going to keep us in the game,” said Starsia.

Rubeor’s extra-man goal with 6:49 remaining before halftime gave the Cavaliers the lead for good at 5-4. Danny Glading scored the first of his two goals with just over five minutes to play in the half as the Cavaliers took a 6-4 lead into the locker room at the break.

Virginia came out of the locker room strong, scoring three times in the opening 3:45 of the second half to take control of the contest. Jack Riley notched his eighth goal of the season on the Cavaliers’ first possession to push the lead to 7-4. Garrett Billings scored 47 seconds later on Virginia’s second possession and Rubeor scored on the third possession as the Cavalier advantage grew to 9-4.

“I think we just got sharper as the game went on,” said Starsia. “We created some unsettled opportunities and I thought we shot the ball a little better at the start of the second half. We jumped on them a little coming out of the locker room which gave us a chance to get a handle on this game. At the start of the second half I felt like our offense got a hungry look from the sideline and we felt like we could score some goals. Against a team like Maryland, if you get 12 or 13 goals, you’ve got to be pretty happy about that.”

Groot ended the Maryland scoring drought midway through the third quarter to cut Virginia’s lead to four goals at 9-5, but the Terps could get no closer.

Billings and Ryan Kelly scored back-to-back goals as UVa built a 12-6 bulge in the fourth quarter.

Kip Turner finished with 11 saves, his second-highest total of the season, before giving way to Bud Petit for the final three minutes.

Longstick midfielder Mike Timms had another big performance for the Cavaliers with a career-high nine ground balls. He also caused a game-high three turnovers.

The Cavaliers return to action at home on Tuesday when they host Binghamton at 4:00 p.m.