By Ben Gibson Cavalier Daily Associate Editor Freshman midfielder Jonathan Villanueva could not have picked a better time to score his first goal of the year.
In the 76th minute, sophomore forward Yannick Reyering found Villanueva with a long ball from midfield. After a few jukes and jives around three defenders he nailed one home to give No. 5 Virginia an emphatic 1-0 victory over the previously unbeaten No. 2 Clemson Tigers in front of an ACC regular season record 7,428 fans last Saturday at Klöckner Stadium.
"I hit the ball with my right foot, which I usually don't do," said Villanueva. "I just hit it as hard as I could and it went in."
The win was partially dampened when Virginia coach George Gelnovatch announced after the game that junior midfielder Jeremy Barlow had been suspended indefinitely for violation of team rules. Barlow did not play against Clemson.
The boisterous crowd had a scare early when a Clemson corner kick resulted in a header by Tiger midfielder Mark Buchholz which appeared to cross the line in the ninth minute of play. But the referees ruled that it was not a goal, leading to Clemson coach Trevor Adair still fuming well after the game. Gelnovatch was not apologizing to anyone, though.
"The bottom line is, we were [at Clemson] four years ago and a guy was 10 yards offsides," Gelnovatch said. "Everybody knew it and I didn't complain. That's just part of [soccer]. We won [this] game and deserved to."
The pace of play throughout the game was frantic; Virginia withstood a Clemson charge in the middle of the first half and created a strong flurry of shots for themselves shortly afterwards.
The best opportunity came in the 43rd minute when freshman defender Bakare Soumare bended a ball from outside of the box over several defenders to a waiting Adam Cristman whose header from just in front of the goalie missed the target by a foot to the right.
Soumare redeemed himself after scoring an own goal against American University earlier in the week by shutting down M.A.C. Hermann candidate, Tiger forward Dane Richards.
"We had a game plan to handle him," Gelnovatch said. "Any time [Matt] Williams was isolated, Soumare had to come over and help. I thought [they] did a very good job handling him."
However, Richards did have one great opportunity at the end of the first half when, in the final minute, he snuck past junior midfielder/defender Zola Short for a one-on-one with senior goalie Ryan Burke. Burke played the ball aggressively, stuffing the shot, but it deflected right back to Richards.
Short atoned for his defensive lapse and was able to use his body to shield the goal and prevent the Tigers going up right before the half.
"If you mess up that badly, and you get a chance to redeem yourself, you better," Short said. "I was just happy to make up for my mistake."
After Villanueva's goal, Virginia had one last bullet to dodge. Clemson defender Greg Eckhardt had a header in the final minutes hit just in front of the goal line before a defender deflected it away.
With the win Virginia is now tied with the No. 3 Maryland Terrapins for the ACC conference lead with identical records (10-1-0, 3-1-0 ACC).
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