Photo courtesy of Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics Communications
Ubogu’s Emergence Continues, but UVA Men’s Soccer Falls in South Bend
For a moment, it seemed like the Hoos might pull off a miracle.
Trailing Notre Dame by two goals in the 90th minute, freshman Kome Ubogu scored to put UVA on the board and then the Cavaliers threatened to find an equalizer on a free kick in the final seconds of the game.
But, the Fighting Irish defense held on and Notre Dame prevailed over the Virginia men’s soccer team 2-1 on Friday night.
If Virginia had pulled off the sensational last-minute comeback to force overtime, the Hoos would have been stealing a game they had no right to win.
Notre Dame dominated Virginia for nearly the entire game, as the Fighting Irish outshot Virginia 16-4 and had eight shots on goal, while Virginia had just one. Notre Dame also totaled nine corner kick opportunities to UVA’s two in the match.
In the 22nd minute, the Fighting Irish struck first on a goal by Mohamed Omar. Michael Pellegrino served in the corner kick and Omar elevated amidst a crowd of bodies in the box and got a head on it to send the ball into the far side corner of the net to give Notre Dame the lead.
Virginia goalkeeper Holden Brown played well to keep the Hoos in the game, making five saves.
Unfortunately, the Cavaliers only had rare chances to score goals and remained scoreless for nearly the entire game.
Notre Dame added a second goal in the 64th minute by Jack Lynn. Dawson McCartney passed it to Lynn on the left wing who dribbled in and took a hard shot that went past Holden Brown and snuck inside the far post for his team-leading fifth goal of the season.
To their credit, the Hoos never quit.
Freshman Kome Ubogu, who had a breakout game against VCU on Thursday night with two goals and one assist, continued his brilliant play as he scored a goal with 46 seconds remaining. Asparuh Slavov dribbled through the middle of the Notre Dame defense and played a short pass to Ubogu on the right side of the box and Ubogu took a strong right-footed shot that hit the bottom side of the crossbar and bounced in for the goal.
Virginia managed to get the ball back quickly and forced a Notre Dame foul on the attacking end which gave the Cavaliers a free kick from near midfield on the right wing. The cross was dangerously deflected a few times in the box but the Fighting Irish were able to clear it out to secure the win.
With the loss, Virginia drops to 3-6-1 overall and remains winless in ACC play with an 0-4 conference record.
Up next, Virginia hosts UNC-Wilmington at Klockner Stadium on Tuesday night.
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