The night called for a lot, and yet the plan was simple.
“Get it done by any means possible,” fourth-year Marco Dos Santos said.
This was no idle maxim. Against No. 6 Stanford Friday at Cagan Stadium, Virginia used just three substitutes. Stanford outshot Virginia 26-4 and won 12 corner kicks to Virginia’s zero. It “wasn’t the prettiest,” Dos Santos said.
But as fourth-year goalkeeper Caleb Tunks reached up and leaned back and pawed away a last-ditch header with zero seconds on the clock, the prettiness mattered not a little bit. The Cavaliers (4-4-1, 2-1-0 ACC) needed Friday’s 3-2 win over the Cardinal (7-2-1, 0-2-1 ACC).
“We took our chances, came together at the right moments, and I think it’s a really big step forward for the group,” Dos Santos said. “We just came together as one and found a way to win.”
For the last five weeks, it had been Virginia Coach George Gelnovatch saying that his team was knocking on the door, that despite a loss the performance had been sound. Friday that tune came from Stanford Coach Jeremy Gunn.
"I'm pleased with our performance in so many ways," Gunn said. "We really dominated the game in so many departments other than the one that matters. So it's a disappointing result but such an encouraging performance."
Virginia opened the scoring in the 16th minute. Third-year Alex Parvu slipped a ball on for fourth-year Brendan Lambe, who turned on the ball and mashed it off a sliding defender to where it looped into the goal. He danced off to the corner, shushing the crowd.
The goal arrived amid an onslaught from the Cardinal, who outshot the Cavaliers 14-1 in the first half. But Virginia, thanks in part to two massive saves from Tunks, entered halftime leading 1-0.
Virginia was happy to witness the return Friday of third-year forward Arnold Matshazi, who played 29 minutes off the bench. But his biggest contribution to the game was a mistimed slide tackle in the penalty area, early in the second half, that gifted Stanford a penalty kick. Sophomore Jack Pymm stroked it home to equalize.
Eleven minutes later, freshman Yujin Kikuchi lifted his head on the edge of the penalty area and steered a shot into the top corner, past a flying Tunks. Now it was not just the run of play in favor of the home side but the scoreline, too.
“This is a hard place to come and play,” Dos Santos said. “Stanford play really well. They’re really bought into their values. So we knew it was gonna be a tough game.”
When the equalizer came for Virginia, it came with a bit of luck, as a header meant to send the ball across the face of goal smacked a defender’s hand. But Dos Santos scored the penalty all the same.
Two minutes later, second-year Sami Oulouheu whipped in a free kick. A lunging defender stabbed it into the corner of the goal.
The goals were both fortuitous moments.
They came well against the run of play.
Any means possible.
Virginia has lost four games this season, and all four times the opponent’s game-winning goal came after the 80th minute, and four times in eight games Virginia has seen a red card.
Any means possible.
Oulouheu’s goal came in the 74th minute. Virginia nervously saw out the remainder of the game. As the win drew nearer, and time ticked down to four seconds, Stanford scrambled to take a corner. At the near post, it got flicked on, and it traveled toward the near post, floating, as the clock struck zero. Tunks leaped and tipped it over the bar.
Lambe, behind Tunks, roared. He had been standing in the goal as the ball fluttered toward it. If it had gone into the goal it would have fallen at Lambe’s feet.
Tunks finished with six saves, a career high for the goalkeeper that has acquitted himself tremendously after winning the starting job from third-year Spencer Sanderson. Lambe’s goal was his third of the season, and Dos Santos’s his fourth goal. The duo has been the most effective for the team.
Eight players played the full 90. They included junior Jed Akwaboah, whose insertion over freshman Isaac Mwakutuya into Virginia’s trio of centerbacks has seemed to solve Virginia’s inconsistency at the back. Mwakutuya played 18 minutes on Friday.
The win is a potential watershed for Virginia. The Cavaliers entered the week ranked 93rd in the RPI. Despite all their promise, all the tales of being hard done by, they had yet to deliver the result.
On Friday, at home at 8 p.m. against Virginia Tech, they will aim to deliver another massive one. By any means possible.
Michael Liebermann is a senior associate on the sports desk and formerly served as a sports editor for the 136th term of The Cavalier Daily. He is a fourth-year College student, majoring in English in the literary prose concentration. Michael is from Westfield, N.J., and enjoys writing about men’s soccer, basketball and lacrosse. Outside of The Cavalier Daily, Michael is involved in Men’s Club Soccer and the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.
Read More
A return to Scott brings a return to form for the Cavaliers on UVA Strong Day
By Ben McNiff | 13 hours agoRecovering from their loss last week, the Cavaliers used a strong passing performance to bulldoze over the Blue Hens 42-3.
Three early goals sink No. 16 Virginia in 3-1 loss to No. 1 North Carolina
By Sofie Keppler | 14 hours agoIn the eighth minute, a sloppy Virginia turnover deep near its own goal turned into a perfectly executed Tar Heel goal from sophomore forward Bella Devey on the left side of the net. 26 seconds later, North Carolina scored again — the same player, same play and same strike — catching Virginia flat-footed twice in a row.
Trevor Dunbar is building his team the ‘right way’
By Caroline Wulff | 21 hours agoAfter half a decade as an assistant for the Cavaliers, Trevor Dunbar is ready for his next challenge as the leader of the program.
