Marco Dos Santos peeled himself from his seat on the grass. His teammates were all back in the locker room by now, and the captain crossed midfield alone. Halfway there, audible only from the field, he said one word into the air, an expletive that summed it up.
No. 11 Virginia had hunted for a game-winner Monday night against No. 16 High Point after equalizing in the 49th minute — just like it did Thursday night after equalizing in the second half against UCLA. But, once again, a late goal torpedoed those plans.
This time the goal came in the 89th minute, a shot roofed off a rebound against a home team down a man. It triggered a confluence of purple jerseys and purple-and-white checkered warmup shirts and orange pinnies, as the Panthers (2-0-0, 0-0-0 Sun Belt) knocked off the Cavaliers (0-0-2, 0-0-0 ACC), 3-2.
Virginia lost back-to-back games to open a season for the first time since 2008. So it is back to the drawing board.
“We’re going to have to watch the film multiple times,” Virginia Coach George Gelnovatch said. “Actually, I’m going to have to watch both games, and make sure we’re lining up the way we should be lining up and what the issues are.”
The start to the season is shocking for a team so heralded, one that tossed around terms like “it factor” and was talked about as being potentially better than the team that won the No. 2 overall seed in last year’s NCAA Tournament.
High Point opened the scoring off a corner in the 12th minute, and Virginia junior forward Arnold Matshazi countered for Virginia off a cross from sophomore midfielder Sami Oulouheu in the 36th minute. Virginia controlled most of the rest of the half, penning the Panthers into a shifting and often shrinking bunker.
But with two minutes left in the half, High Point graduate goalie Josh Caron’s side volley somehow sailed over the head of Virginia graduate defender Sebastian Pop. Freshman forward Nick Sarantakos picked it up and slotted it in off the error.
“Sebastian Pop never makes that mistake,” Gelnovatch said. “Never makes that mistake. Never makes that mistake. I have to look at what happened on that goal.”
That was a theme of the night for Gelnovatch — blunders that felt out of character. He is not worried, he said, about other alarming trends — Virginia’s giving away a goal in each game off a cross, or its being exposed on counter-attacks. Not except for one — “Individual breakdowns.”
“We gave away some goals that we’re not accustomed to giving away,” Gelnovatch said. “The first two shots were goals. Very uncharacteristic. Both individually and collectively, just uncharacteristic.”
Out of halftime, though, Virginia equalized, again through Oulouheu.
“He’s had a little bit of a rough go the first few games,” senior midfielder Brendan Lambe said. “But that’s exactly what you want from a player when your back’s kind of up against the wall and you’ve having a bad run of form. He responded.”
Oulouheu collected the ball on the left side of the penalty area, hesitated for a second, then beat his man with his customary flickering speed. His left foot pounded the ball on the ground into the back post.
Then he wheeled away and backflipped high into the sky, like a pogo stick.
Then he got back for the restart and instead peeled off a sock and hobbled off the field.
He was not the only one. Late in the first half, Matshazi stepped awkwardly and hit the ground, clutching his left hamstring. He got up but collapsed again a couple minutes later, soon to be surrounded by trainers, and left the game.
Gelnovatch said he had no immediate update on either player, neither of which returned.
By the end, Virginia gobbled up 65 percent of the possession. It outshot High Point 20-5, including a shot from Lambe that seemed destined for the bottom left corner, only to be tipped away by Caron. Lambe’s hands gripped the back of his head.
“Like the UCLA game,” Gelnovatch said. “Second half — turn the screw, turn the screw, turn the screw. Get the second goal. Think a third one’s coming.”
Then, nope.
After Oulouheu’s equalizer, Virginia fired 11 shots. High Point took just three — one in the 83rd minute, and two on the play that delivered the game-winner.
Virginia really deflated five minutes before the winner, when freshman centerback Isaac Mwakutuya picked up a second yellow a minute after his first. That left the Cavaliers trying to preserve a draw.
In the end, there was just a play-by-play man’s eulogy echoing into the warm night sky, and a dozen visiting fans left in the bleachers. Half the Virginia players doubled over. Dos Santos sat on the opposite sideline.
“A little frustrated,” Lambe said. “I think some of the things we’re working on aren’t coming off. But sometimes these things take time.”
Lambe would know. In his time at Virginia, early struggles have been the program’s trademark. It lost 4-1 at George Mason in its third game last year. The year before that, Virginia started off 2-3-4, and the year before that, it lost 3-1 to Loyola Marymount in its second game.
Each season has turned around. So Lambe still believes. Virginia controlled each of its first two games, and the roster is bursting with talent. It is just a matter of turning the screws all the way.
“We have so much talent and guys that are working for the right things in the right way,” Lambe said. “It's unfortunate right now because it's not coming off, but we're all committed to what we're doing.”
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