Benney Koch, Staff Writer
VCU men’s soccer fell to George Mason University 1-0 on Halloween at VCU Athletic Village, ending the Rams’ season with a late goal in the regular-season finale.
The loss came on Senior Day and head coach Dave Giffard’s final game, who later announced his retirement from college coaching on Nov. 2 after 17 seasons with the program, according to VCU Athletics.
The Rams entered Saturday’s matchup with a chance to keep their Atlantic 10 Championship hopes alive with a win, but the loss brought VCU’s season to a close with a 2-10-3 overall record and a 2-5-1 record in A-10 play.
Both teams remained scoreless for nearly the entire match. Fourth-year goalkeeper Trevor Maloney made two saves, including a stop on a George Mason attempt in the 78th minute, while the Rams similarly struggled to find a breakthrough against Patriots second-year goalkeeper Angel Hernandez.
With the match tied in the 89th minute, George Mason scored off a rebound from the upright, giving the Patriots a 1-0 lead. VCU could not respond in the final minutes, closing out a difficult season with a loss at home.
After the match, Giffard reflected on the challenges his team faced throughout the season, particularly the number of players who were unavailable or still working their way back from injuries.
“Many of the key guys just weren’t guys who were available, or when they became available they were a long, long way away from their best or themselves,” Giffard said. “But they fought with what they could give and some of them ran themselves back into the ground and have been done now for the last two or three weeks because of it.”
Giffard said that the players’ experiences this season could help shape their development moving forward. He emphasized the importance of looking inward when facing adversity rather than blaming circumstances outside of one’s control.
“Very, very few people, but a few, look inside. They say, shoot, I struggled, what do I need to do? The game just showed me I wasn’t ready for this. How do I take this on?” Giffard said.
Giffard retires finishing with a 128-120-61 career record having led the Rams to three NCAA Tournament appearances, two A-10 regular-season championships and five appearances in the A-10 Championship match, according to VCU Athletics.
As the Rams move into the offseason, Giffard encouraged his players to use the coming months to reflect on their performances and decide how to move forward.
“You guys will have eight months to figure out how can you take the information that the game showed you, that we’ll share with you and create environments to help you,” Giffard said. “But this isn’t my journey, this is your journey. What are you going to do with it?”