Men’s soccer falls to defending national champs

After 83 scoreless minutes, University of Virginia freshman midfielder Derrick Etienne found the back of the net to give the defending national champions the road win against VCU in front of 1,650 — the fourth-largest crowd in Sports Backers Stadium history.

The Rams, coached by Dave Giffard in his third year at the helm, created several chances, but could not seem to find accuracy in front of the goal as U.Va.’s sophomore goalkeeper Jeff Caldwell had only one save to make from VCU’s 16 shots. His counterpart on the VCU’s side, sophomore goalkeeper Perre Gardan, registered five saves from U.Va.’s 11 shots in a game that could have gone to either side.

“In games like that, you don’t get to miss that many good chances and win,” Giffard said after the match. “We had 5-7 good looks at goal and forced only one save out of the goalkeeper. That’s a lot of good looks against a quality opponent and in the end we paid for it.”

The Rams knocked on the door early in the first half as freshmen Simond Kargbo and Ivan Sakou and junior Brandon Eaton all had chances that barely missed the goal in the first 15 minutes. In the 34th minute, junior midfielder Nicko Corriveau shot a gathered loose ball off a deflection in the box in an attempt to give the Cavaliers the lead, but his shot couldn’t beat Gardan, who came charging out from goal to deflect the shot away. Minutes later, the Rams looked to have found a breakthrough from their captain, senior defender Dennis Castillo, but his free kick was blocked by U.Va. defenders.

VCU opened the second half with the same energy they had early in the first half, but Sakou again missed the target with his opportunity. In the 62nd minute, junior midfielder Dakota Barnathan was inches away from putting the Rams ahead with a shot that hit the crossbar. Minutes later, Eaton again missed the target, this time putting his shot too high above the goal.

The Rams would come to regret their missed chances when U.Va.’s Etienne dribbled through several VCU defenders and chipped a shot over the on-rushing Gardan to give the Cavaliers a 1-0 lead six minutes from time.

When the Rams finally managed a shot on goal a couple minutes after going down, Caldwell saved to keep the Cavaliers ahead.

“So you know, I thought the first half we were controlling the game. To be fair, I think we thought we should have scored. We put enough pressure on them to score,” U.Va. head coach George Gelnovatch said after the game. “And I would say the first 30 minutes of the second half, they put us under pressure. And I kind of knew it and I said it to the team, ‘Expect them to be better and more energized.’”

Fadel Allassan, Staff Writer

Fadel is a sophomore print journalism major. He is fluent in English and French and enjoys writing about politics. // Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

allassanfg@commonwealthtimes.org