CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- With six minutes left in the first half, the situation was looking dire for the Virginia men's soccer team. For the second straight game, the Cavaliers found themselves down 2-0, and Virginia was facing a pugnacious Boston College squad, a rowdy crowd and temperatures that dropped into the low 40s during the latter part of the game. Yet the Cavaliers were able to battle back and earn a hard-fought 4-3 victory over a ranked conference foe on the road.
"I'm just really proud of the team tonight," Virginia coach George Gelnovatch said. "We were down 2-0 and 3-2, but we kept our composure and kept going at them. For the first 20 minutes, they were flying at us going 100 miles an hour. Once that settled down we got a little bit of a rhythm going. We were just methodical. We never felt like we were going to lose the game."
In a remarkable show of resilience, Virginia (5-1-1, 2-0-0 ACC) eliminated two Boston College leads. The Eagles took their first lead in the eighth minute when Boston College forward Sherron Manswell picked off an errant Ryan Burke goal kick and scored an unassisted goal. The goal was Manswell's eighth of the season. The Eagles then added to that lead in the 40th minute when Hadrien Toure was obstructed in the box and sent his subsequent penalty kick past Burke into the lower right corner of the net.
"I don't think it was our strongest defensive performance, but you have to keep in mind that BC has two very good forwards," Gelnovatch said.
Virginia narrowed the deficit when freshman forward Yannick Reyering notched his fourth goal of the season on a penalty kick with 21 seconds remaining in the half. Earlier in the half, Reyering had a penalty kick deflected on a brilliant save by Boston College goalkeeper Issey Maholo.
"The difference between this game and the Old Dominion game was that we stayed aggressive the entire game tonight," Reyering said. "We were attacking the whole time. We really wanted to win this game, especially after what happened against Old Dominion."
The Cavaliers tied the game eight minutes into the second half when forward Adam Cristman headed a Chris Tierney free kick into the back of the net. This was a homecoming game for Tierney, who hails from Wellesley, Mass. In front of a cadre of family and friends, he would finish the game with three assists.
In the 69th minute of play, Virginia defender Matt Poole was called for a handball. Boston College was awarded a penalty kick and retook the lead when Reuben Ayarna scored on that set piece. Ayarna, however, was then ejected from the game when he received his second yellow card for taking his shirt off in the celebration following the goal. Earlier, a Boston College assistant coach was also ejected for disrespecting the officials. Virginia would play one man up for the final 21 minutes of the game.
Cristman tied the game in the 75th minute off a service into the box from Tierney. Cristman now has six goals on the season. Ten minutes later, Reyering notched his fifth goal of the year, sealing the game for Virginia with a header into the left side of the net off a Tierney corner kick.
"When your forwards are scoring goals like that, that is all you can ask of them," Gelnovatch said. "There were times in that game when they were getting the crap kicked out of them and just hung in there and kept waiting for their chances. They did a great job."
The Cavaliers return to Charlottesville for a Wednesday evening game against Mount St. Mary's. North Carolina comes to town Saturday for a highly-anticipated matchup between two of the top teams in the ACC.
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