The Virginia men’s soccer team entered Friday night’s showdown at Clemson’s Riggs Field hoping to earn a win in its first of 11 ACC regular-season contests and make amends for its 2-0 loss to the Tigers last year in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers, however, were unable to accomplish either goal, falling 2-0 in their third game of the season.
The Tigers’ aggressive style of play put Virginia (1-2-0) on the defensive throughout the match. Clemson (3-0-0) racked up 19 fouls en route to outshooting Virginia 13-6, and notched seven shots on-goal to Virginia’s three. Cavalier sophomore goalkeeper Jeff Gal recorded five saves but was tagged with his second loss of the season.
Clemson graduate-student Thomas McNamara, a former first-team All-Ivy League midfielder during his time at Brown, opened the scoring in the 28th minute. Tiger junior midfielder Ara Amirkhanian then extended the Tiger lead to two 11 minutes later.
Virginia coach George Gelnovatch started six sophomores, two freshmen and three juniors and deployed four underclassmen as reserves. Sophomore reserve midfielder Jordan Poarch played half the game in his first appearance of the season, and freshman reserve midfielder Patrick Foss played a career-high 23 minutes.
Virginia — ranked 21st in the Sept. 3 edition of the Soccer Times College Coaches Poll — was coming off a 2-0 win against St. John’s on Monday night at Klöckner Stadium. The Cavaliers received goals from freshman forward Jordan Allen and sophomore midfielder Brian James in that victory, but the two combined for one, off-target shot Friday.
Virginia’s next stop is Winston Salem, N.C., where they will play ACC foe No. 18 Wake Forest (2-1-0) Friday at 7 p.m.
—compiled by Matthew Morris
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