Two goals should have been enough to beat Monmouth. Wednesday evening, freshman Yannick Reyering scored his seventh goal of the season and Jeremy Barlow notched a goal and an assist for the Cavaliers. Against a team like Monmouth, a member of the Northeast Conference, that should have been enough. But it wasn't. Thanks to two fluke goals, the Hawks shocked the No. 8 Cavaliers by hanging in for a 2-2 double overtime tie in front of a sparse crowd of 572 at Klöckner Stadium.
"I thought we did enough to win the game," Virginia coach George Gelnovatch said. "The goals they scored, particularly the first one, were extremely preventable. That first one was just a bad goal. On the second one, I don't think the guy was trying to do what he did. They scored two goals that I don't think would necessarily happen if we had to play them again."
Neither team was able to take control of the game in the first half of play. Virginia (7-1-2, 3-0 ACC) came out with its normal staring lineup, with the exception of freshman Robby Rogers filling in at Matt Poole's normal centerback spot. Poole would replace Rogers at the start of the second half. The Hawks (3-3-4) played with a level of intensity that may have caught some Virginia players off guard.
"[Monmouth] just came out with a lot of energy and were really excited to play," senior midfielder Joe Vide said. "We didn't score a goal in the first half and that made things tougher."
The game was also extremely physical for a Wednesday night, non-conference matchup. At one point in the first half, Gelnovatch became irate when sophomore midfielder Nico Colaluca was maliciously pushed to the ground by a Monmouth player.
"This game was more physical than I thought it would be," Gelnovatch said. "I wasn't happy about that some of the stuff we were taking at all. Some things were missed [by the referees] that it would have taken a good eye to see."
The Hawks took a 1-0 lead in the 50th minute off a freak play. Monmouth midfielder Kevin Hartwyk had a shot blocked by Virginia goalkeeper Ryan Burke. The ball, however, ricocheted off Burke back to Hartwyk, who headed it into the net. Hartwyk's goal was the first that Virginia has surrendered at home this season.
Virginia responded less than two minutes later when Reyering sent in a shot from six yards out. Reyering's seventh goal of the year tied him with Adam Cristman for team lead. Six minutes after Reyering's goal, Cristman fired a cross from the right side of the field to Barlow who was streaking into the left side of the box. Barlow scored easily and gave Virginia a 2-1 lead.
"After we scored the second goal, I thought we were just kind of plugging away in a good way," Gelnovatch said. "We were doing what we were supposed to be doing, managing the game. Their second goal kind of came a bit out of nowhere."
Monmouth scored the equalizing goal at the 83:12 mark. Rob LaRocca sent a pass into the box which found midfielder Ryan Castle at the top left corner of the box. His shot from 18 yards out was just out of reach of Burke.
Virginia narrowly missed an opportunity to win the game in the final minute of regulation when Cristman's head could not quite catch up with a Barlow cross pass just in front of the Monmouth net.
Virginia out shot Monmouth 5-0 in the two overtime periods but was unable to put one of those shots in the net for a victory. The Cavaliers now hit the road to South Carolina for a Friday contest at Clemson.
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