The Shadow
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (VR) – The Virginia men’s soccer team notched its third consecutive win and second straight clean sheet as a pair of Cavaliers netted their first career goals on Tuesday night (Oct. 13). Virginia (7-5-1, 3-2 ACC) downed Gardner-Webb (6-4-1, 3-1 Big South) by a score of 4-0 at Klöckner Stadium.
Goals (Assist)
5’ Virginia – Smith
23’ Virginia – Sloan (Smith)
74’ Virginia – Lambe (Dos Santos)
82’ Virginia – Rankin (Dos Santos)
The Cavaliers grabbed an early advantage just five minutes in when a misplayed ball at the back found the feet of AJ Smith who, with a pair of touches, slotted the ball inside the post to give Virginia the early lead. Smith was once again involved when the Cavaliers doubled their advantage slipping Parker Sloan into the penalty area who took a perfect touch before scoring his first career goal.
The Cavaliers stretched their advantage to three in the 74th minute when Marco Dos Santos and Brendan Lambe connected with a quick one-two in the final third before Lambe fired the ball past the goalkeeper. First-year forward Zeus Rankin scored his first career goal in the 82nd minute off another assist from Dos Santos.
Virginia outshot Gardner-Webb by a margin of 11-10, but the Cavaliers placed eight of their attempts on target while the Bulldogs only forced a pair of saves from Cavalier goalkeeper Caleb Tunks.
Additional Notes:
- Parker Sloan scored the first goal of his career
- Zeus Rankin notched his first collegiate goal
- Smith recorded his seventh goal of the season to lead the team
- Smith recorded his third game with multiple goal involvements on the season
- Smith has scored or assisted in six of Virginia’s 13 games this season
- Dos Santos recorded a pair of assists on the night; he has recorded multiple assists in two of his last three appearances
- Dos Santos has registered nine goal involvements in his last six appearances
- Brendan Lambe and Marco Dos Santos have assisted each other on five goals this season, the most common scoring connection for the team this season
- Lambe (5g, 8a) and Dos Santos (6g, 6a) each lead the team with 18 points on the season
- The Cavaliers have won three consecutive games, their longest streak of the season
- Virginia improves to 1-0 in the series with Gardner-Webb
- The Cavaliers recorded their second consecutive clean sheet, their fourth on the season
What They Said
“Going into the Cal game we were 5-5-1, and we wanted to clean the slate one game at a time and start stacking not only wins, but shutouts. So, right now, I feel like we are 2-0 and unscored upon. We’ve been scoring all year and creating some great chances…it’s really starting to come together. The defensive piece and keeping the ball out of our goal. That’s two games in-a-row keeping shutouts against a team that had won five games in-a-row…and, of course Cal is a good team, so I’m super thrilled.”– Head Coach George Gelnovatch
“Coming in from high school I was a forward, so I thought I was going to be scoring goals from the minute I got here. So, five years later is a little bit longer of a timeframe but I was just excited to finally get one in…I think the way we have been playing and utilizing everybody and the way we’ve been going forward, I knew it was coming. I was just staying patient and doing what the team needed at the time.” – Parker Sloan
Up Next:
The Cavaliers will be back in action on Friday (Oct. 16) when they travel to Duke. Kickoff from Koskinen Stadium is set for 7 p.m. on ACC Network Extra (ACCNX).
