Mwila’s goal in 72nd minute lifts men’s soccer over George Mason in physical battle
Yoram Mwila lifts VCU over George Mason in 72nd minute.
Yoram Mwila was granted captain status this season, and his play on the field coincides with his character. Photo by Chris Conway.
Jim Swing
Sports Editor
Commonwealth Times’ Sports Twitter
Dave Giffard doesn’t like to lose.
Nor does his wife, his staff or anyone associated with the VCU men’s soccer team for that matter.
When the Rams suffered a four-game losing streak during the month of September, Giffard started to get a tad cantankerous.
“Like anybody, I’m a little grouchy and my staff gets a little grouchy,” Giffard said. “I’d prefer not to do that again.”
So he put the downslide to sleep Saturday night when VCU snapped its four game losing streak by defeating conference foe George Mason 1-0 in a gritty battle.
The Rams controlled the tempo for the better part of the first and second half but came away empty on several scoring opportunities.
But in the 72nd minute of play, Yoram Mwila took a pass from Nate Shiffman and squeaked it past the left side of Patriots’ goaltender Sean Cote for his fourth of the season to put the Rams up 1-0 and eventually win the game.
The Akron transfer streaked down the track on the outside of the field before stopping and saluting the largest crowd of the season of 805 at Sports Backers Stadium.
“Nate (Shiffman) played my feet,” Mwila said with a smile. “I just turned took a touch, it rolled perfect, and I thought, ‘I’ve got to hit it,’ and I scored.”
After several narrowly missed opportunities for close to 73 minutes, a confident Mwila said he and his team knew the goal was on its way.
“It felt real good, but at the same time we talk about it every time, just keep doing what we do and a goal will come,” Mwila said. “So I mean it was a good feeling, but we expected it to come.”
But it didn’t come without a fight.
Following Mwila’s goal, Patriots forward Timmy Mulgrew was given a yellow card in the 75th minute.
George Mason played VCU elbow-to-elbow tied in with the occasional foot trampling or shove.
However, Giffard said his team was well prepared for a dogfight.
“We had a real tough week of training this week,” he said. “We drove the car every day until it was out of gas; we just killed the guys, and we had to get them gritting their teeth and fighting more. It started to become a little bit of a street fight, and Mason wanted to draw some restarts; they wanted to get under your skin a little bit.”
But the Rams wouldn’t allow the Patriots’ antics to dwell under their skin.
Mwila said there’s no bad blood, just physical play.
“They played us honestly,” he said. “They made it tough for us to get in, and they didn’t give us anything easy. I thought they played well; we just tried not to get frustrated.”
Saturday night’s game was too important for the Rams to get frustrated.
Snapping their four-game slide and getting back on track with a level head was too crucial.
And following the win, Giffard summarized the mentality.
“Obviously every game is important,” Giffard said. “What we try to do is keep our highs low and our lows high.”
