No. 18 Virginia Men’s Soccer Dominates Virginia Tech 3-0
"We got to be the villain over there and the heroes over here," said Reese Miller after the 2-1 win against Pittsburgh when asked about the Cavaliers' road struggles this season.
On a crisp fall night in Blacksburg, Virginia, the Cavaliers were the villains on Thompson field, cruising to a 3-0 victory over Virginia Tech to earn their first win on the road this year and extend their unbeaten streak to six games. Stephen Annor capitalized on a mistake from the Hokies to give Virginia an early lead that was padded by a free kick goal from Daniel Mangarov in the first half and another goal from Annor in the second half to secure the victory for the Hoos.
Less than three minutes into the game, Stephen Annor stole the ball from Virginia Tech’s Grant Howard before chipping a shot from outside the box over the goalie to give the Cavaliers an early 1-0 lead.
Building on the goal, Virginia began to put the Hokies under pressure in the lower third. A few minutes later, Aidan O’Connor was pickpocketed and was forced to commit a foul, awarding a threatening free kick for Virginia Tech to the right of Virginia’s box. The chance was cleared away and on the ensuing counterattack, the Cavaliers nearly doubled their advantage after some crisp passing between Mouhameth Thiam and Daniel Mangarov.
The pressure continued with more Virginia Tech mistakes leading to Virginia opportunities. Nearly 10 minutes after the goal, Austin Rome had a wide-open header in the box but failed to put his shot on goal.
Then, Misei Yoshizawa nearly equalized for the Hokies on a counterattack, but his shot was saved by Joey Batrouni. Virginia Tech later earned another free kick due to a yellow card by Rome, but Batrouni was again up for the task as the first half established itself as a cagey back-and-forth affair.
On the other side, the Cavaliers then earned a free kick of their own outside the 18-yard box. Mangarov stepped to the spot before curling the ball through the Virginia Tech wall and into the back of the net to give Virginia a 2-0 lead with less than 25 minutes left in the half.
The shots continued to come from both sides, with Thiam nearly finding Virginia’s third after stealing possession from the Hokies way up the field. Conversely, Ethan Balleck had a chance inside Virginia’s box, but his shot flew past the far left post.
With less than two minutes in the half, Reese Miller fired a curling shot that forced Timi Adams to make his third save of the night. Virginia finished the first half with five shots on goal to Virginia Tech’s two. The Hokies had multiple set-piece opportunities but could not capitalize in the opening 45 minutes.
To open the second half, the Cavaliers nearly scored after a Paul Wiese cross picked out Annor, but his shot flew over the goal as the cross was a little too high for the freshman. Defensively, Virginia continued to hold Virginia Tech scoreless despite the Hokies controlling possession.
As the Hokies amplified the pressure, Virginia fired back with a counterattack after a blocked shot that set up Annor with two defenders to beat. Using his speed, Annor lifted the ball over one defender and sprinted towards the net before striking a shot into the bottom corner to give the Cavaliers a 3-0 lead in Blacksburg.
The goal was scored with 30 minutes left but silenced the Hokies as they struggled to pick up the pieces and respond to the daunting deficit. The Cavaliers followed up the goal with more pressure, forcing Adams to make another save, and then Annor nearly completed his hat trick, but his shot was wide.
After that, the game began to slow down as the Cavaliers maintained a clean sheet. One of the lone bright spots for the Hokies was Adams, who made a point-blank save against Kome Ubogu, who nearly extended the Virginia lead to four.
In the final minutes, Virginia held strong defensively to secure a 3-0 victory over Virginia Tech to claim the victory in addition to a point in the Commonwealth Clash. UVA leads the 2023-2024 Commonwealth Clash 2-0.
With the win, Virginia is now 6-0-2 when Stephen Annor scores as the striker continues to build on his exceptional freshman campaign.
Virginia (8-3-3, 4-2-1 ACC) will close out the regular season next week at home against Hofstra on Tuesday before facing off against No. 11 North Carolina on Friday, October 27th in the regular season finale.
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