Men’s Soccer Regroups in Second Half, Comes Up Short to No. 4 North Carolina

Jim Swing
Assistant Sport Editor

The night began with the ceremonial recognition of the VCU Rams men’s soccer team’s seniors in the final home match of the season. Seniors Gabriel Rodriguez (Guatemala City, Guatemala/San Jacinto College), Thomas Hupper (Olpe, Germany/St. Franziskus Gynasium Olpe), Lucas Paulini (Buenos Ares, Argentina/Tusculum College), Jake Van Yahres (Charlottesville, Va./American University) and C.J. Gehin-Scott (Chesapeake, Va./Hickory) met head coach Dave Giffard at midfield for a handshake along with a few words of wisdom as senior night was underway against a tough challenger in the No. 4 North Carolina Tar Heels.

The Rams would be tested early by a quick Tar Heels offense as junior Kirk Urso fired a shot to right post in the fifth minute, forcing junior keeper Josh Pantazelos (Birmingham, Ala./University of Akron), in for the injured Rodriguez, to make his first of three saves on the night with a spectacular punch.

VCU created an opportunity of its own just three minutes later as Gehin-Scott took a rebound to the chest off the foot of forward/defenseman Nick Rich (Kent, England/Tusculum College) and generated a shot on goal which was snatched out of mid-air by UNC keeper Scott Goodwin.

In the 32nd minute, the Tar Heels caught the Rams defense off-guard and generated a breakaway give-and-go, enabling Robbie Lovejoy, recently named to the Top Drawer National Team of the Week, to find defenseman Josh Rice over the middle who side-stepped Pantazelos and found the back of the net for the game’s first and only goal.

At the end of the first half, UNC had out-shot VCU 9-2, along with an 8-0 advantage in corner kicks. “The first 45 minutes, we were a little nervous to come in and play against one of the better teams in the country,” Giffard said. “I think it showed in our play a little bit; we were a little more frantic, more giveaways than we’re used to, and part of that is our nervousness, and part of it is that North Carolina is really good.”

With the start of the second half, the Rams came out looking rejuvenated as freshman Jason Johnson (Saint Anne, Jamaica/Manchester) registered the first two shots of the half, keeping UNC defenders on their toes. Johnson took a header off of a free kick from Rich in the 47th minute that sailed just high over the goal-post. Just eight minutes later, Johnson would threaten once again with a blast from inside the box on a pass from Yoram Mwila (Lusaka, Zambia/University of Akron) that was deflected away by the UNC keeper.

“At halftime our guys were able to take a deep breath and come out and play our brand in the second half,” Giffard said. “I thought we dictated the second half and carried the play to a very good team.”

The Rams managed to create a 4-2 shot margin on the Tar Heels in the second half along with three corner kicks but came away empty in a disappointing 1-0 loss.

“There are a lot of positives to take from tonight,” Giffard said. “Certainly you’d like to win the game, and in some ways I think we deserved to get a result in the second half; it was a little more us, I guess not enough to deserve a goal, but certainly positive for us moving forward.”

VCU will close out the regular season with a three-game road stint at Towson, James Madison and Delaware with hopes of containing its second place spot in the Colonial Athletic Association with the aim of participating in the conference tournament.

“Hopefully at the end of those three games we’ll be in a position to be in the final four of our conference,” Giffard said. “I think that this team has shown that given that opportunity, I feel pretty good about our chances to go win our way into the NCAA Tournament.”