The Virginia men's soccer team made a statement yesterday at Klockner Stadium. By opening the NCAA Tournament with a 5-0 first-round blowout of Lehigh, the Cavaliers made it clear that they fully intend to take the tourney by storm.
Led by two goals from freshman midfielder Ryan Kelly, the Cavalier offense thwarted Lehigh's bunker defense, out-shooting the Mountain Hawks, 30-1.
"We just wanted to get started off on the right foot, get control and have some momentum starting in on our big games," Kelly said. "We weren't looking past this game, but we just said we wanted to get it going and win convincingly, and let people know that we're here to stay this year. We're going to get it done."
Fifth-seeded Virginia (16-5-1) fired 10 shots in the game's first 15 minutes but had to wait nearly 35 minutes for its first score. Kelly got the ball off a corner kick and shot it out of a pack of defenders and past Lehigh goalkeeper Ryan Grezeszczak.
"I felt like we just needed to get that first goal," Cavalier coach George Gelnovatch said. "In the first 20 minutes, it could have been two or three to nothing. I've been involved with games like this before where the longer it goes, you just don't know. I think we were all relieved to get that first goal."
Virginia took a 2-0 lead to halftime when freshman forward Alecko Eskandarian broke away from four defenders and scored with three minutes remaining in the half.
The goal, Eskandarian's 16th of the season, tied the Cavalier freshman goals record set by Gelnovatch in 1983. It also gave Eskandarian 38 points on the year, one more than Gelnovatch's rookie scoring record.
The Cavaliers came out firing after halftime. Less than 10 minutes into the second half, junior midfielder Steve Totten shot the ball into the top right corner of the goal from 22 yards out off an assist from sophomore forward Ryan Gibbs.
Kelly followed with his second goal of the game 20 minutes later, a powerful shot over Grezeszczak's hands. Sophomore midfielder Eric Solomon also got in on the scoring action when he gathered a loose ball and dribbled it past Grezeszczak for the Cavs' final goal of the game.
Lehigh coach Dean Koski said that while his team was not fully prepared, the players fought hard.
"I think the operative phrase is 'hung in there,' and that's what we did." Koski said. "We hung in there for the first 15 minutes and weathered their onslaught. I thought we settled them a little bit. We tried to possess the ball and generate something. But they just got right back into it. They were moving the ball quickly. They were getting numbers forward, with great organization and great shape. In spite of our defensive strategy, which was to stay compact, they did a great job of breaking [the defenders] down."
Virginia will host unseeded St. John's in the NCAA second round Sunday at Klockner. The Red Storm (14-4-2) dispatched James Madison Saturday in the second round, 1-0.
The Cavaliers were without senior defender Chad Prince, who suffered a knee injury in the first half of the ACC title game last weekend, and senior forward Ryan Trout, who has been out for several weeks. Gelnovatch said team doctors would re-evaluate Prince tomorrow and he would hopefully be ready to play against St. John's. Trout is not expected to return for Sunday's game.
Sophomore center midfielder Kyle Martino said the Mountain Hawks provided a good tune-up for the increasingly difficult games ahead.
"If you look at the tournament, there have been a lot of tough first round games," Martino said. "Our regular season performance, making sure that we won the big games, put us in a great position now to have an easier first round game than a lot of other teams had. It gives us a lot of momentum going into our next games against St. John's. It's going to get harder every game from now on"
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