The No.4-ranked Virginia men's soccer team improved its record to 9-1-2 after last night's 2-1 victory against St. Francis of New York.
The first goal came just eight minutes into the game when freshman Yannick Reyering brought the ball past the defenders and, as the goalie ran up to attempt the save, made his move around to the right for an easy goal.
Just one minute and 20 seconds later, junior Ian Holder scored Virginia's second goal. The assist came from sophomore Jeremy Barlow, who passed the ball to Holder as he ran past the defenders. As St. Francis' goalie once again tried to step up and make the save, Holder juked to the left to find an open net.
Virginia kept control of the ball for the majority of the first half as St. Francis could not seem to keep the ball outside of its own half. The two early goals also allowed Virginia coach George Gelnovatch to give his reserves some playing time while his starters rested on the sidelines.
"Our strategy was to obviously start with guys we felt we needed to start with," Gelnovatch said. "But we wanted to [substitute] as soon as we could get some guys some rest."
This was evident when junior Drew Harrison came into the game for senior Joe Vide with just under 20 minutes left to play in the first half.
Holder and Reyering both had multiple opportunities to score in the middle of the first half, but neither was able to capitalize on the opportunities.
After 36 minutes passed in the first half, St. Francis' junior midfielder, Carlos Moncaleano, picked up a cleared ball from the upper-right corner of Virginia's box. Moncaleano fired a rifle of a shot across the goal into the left corner, putting St. Francis behind by only one goal.
Despite being scoreless, the second half was not uneventful. The tension between the two teams unveiled itself a little in the first half when sophomore Chris Tierney received a yellow card for a hard hit on freshman Ryan Reyes of St. Francis.
This was only the beginning though. Almost halfway through the second half, the referee handed out two more yellow cards, both to St. Francis players (Kemalie Preston and Marlon Bennett) for rough fouls against Barlow.
With 19:46 left in the second half, Preston received his second yellow card of the game, again for fouling Barlow. This resulted in a red card and Preston's ejection from the game. Tierney nearly gave the crowd something else to cheer about when his free kick from the foul just barely missed the upper right-hand corner of the goal.
Only a minute and a half went by before the referee handed out his fourth yellow card and second red card, which went to Bennett. Bennett was ejected for fouling Barlow for the fourth consecutive time.
With 16:22 left in the game, freshman Robby Rogers ran down the left side of the field with the ball and passed to Reyering as he cut through two defenders up the middle. The goalie's attempt to save the ball failed when Reyering shot to the left and scored. To the crowd's dismay, the goal was nullified when the referee called Reyering offside.
For the rest of the game, Virginia was in complete control, only allowing one shot on goal the entire game.
Although the 2-1 score may not be indicative of it, Virginia outplayed St. Francis in every way. Even though the Cavaliers gave up one goal, Virginia allowed only four shots to St. Francis' 23.
This Sunday, Virginia aims to redeem itself after last year's defeat against Duke.
"My teammates told me that it's a hot rivalry," Reyering said. "Everyone is prepared for it, though. We're hoping that the stadium will be crowded, and we'll come out flying like we did today."
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