After a slow start in which the 10th-ranked Virginia men's soccer team was down an early goal to unranked Elon, the Cavaliers rallied for yet another come-from-behind victory last night at Klöckner Stadium with a 3-1 win over the Phoenix.
In the first-ever meeting between the two schools, Elon (6-8-0) played a solid defensive game from the outset. The Phoenix capitalized on their first real offensive opportunity of the game when sophomore midfielder Chad Heinicke blasted a long shot past Virginia keeper Kyle Singer in the 27th minute. Down 1-0 to an inferior squad, Virginia (10-3-1) awoke and prevented Elon from ever threatening again. In the end, the Cavaliers outshot the Phoenix, 17-3.
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Two minutes after Heinicke's goal, Virginia freshman Ryan Kelly scored his second goal of the season as he headed a loose ball over the outstretched arms of Elon goalie Scot Whal. Kelly out-jumped the defense and placed the ball just under the crossbar to tie the game. The teams headed for the locker room at halftime with the score tied at one, but Virginia had control of the game.
"They scored and we just realized that we were down 1-0 to a team that we should be killing," freshman forward Alecko Eskandarian said. "Everyone picked it up a notch and we just clicked."
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In the second half, Eskandarian netted his 12th and 13th goals of the season. In the 62nd minute, Eskandarian collected a cross from senior midfielder Curtis Bush that provided a perfect look at the goal. Eskandarian calmly slotted the ball past Wahl to give the Cavaliers a lead they would not relinquish.
Five minutes later, sophomore Kyle Martino created an opportunity for Eskandarian to put the game out of reach. After dribbling the ball down half the length of the field, Martino sent a cross to Eskandarian that was deflected, but Eskandarian collected the misdirected pass and hammered it home.
"I was just staying with the play and not giving up," Eskandarian said. "The first ball didn't get there, so I could have given up, but it's just a matter of believing that it'll pop out for you."
Eskandarian's two goals only furthered his reputation as Virginia's top goal scorer. He has 13 goals, more than twice as many as Ryan Gibbs, the team's second-leading scorer with six goals.
Eskandarian "pulled us out again," Virginia coach George Gelnovatch said. "The kid is a goal scorer. He's alert, he's looking for mistakes and he never expects the defenders to make the play. He scored that third goal because he didn't give up on it. That's what good goal scorers do."
The Cavaliers' bad habit of allowing other teams to score first is a cause for concern for Gelnovatch.
"You give them a goal and the game is less manageable," he said. "When we got the second and third goals, the game was more manageable and we could do what we wanted to do"
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