The No. 5 Virginia men's soccer team seemingly had Saturday evening's game against No. 12 Virginia Tech wrapped up. When midfielder Ian Holder gave Virginia a 1-0 lead with 8:46 remaining, it looked as if Hokies should have started to warm up their bus for the trip back to Blacksburg. Road teams are not supposed to be able to rebound from such a late goal.
Most teams, however, do not have a player like the Hokies' freshman forward Patrick Nyarko. The Ghana native shocked the Cavaliers by scoring the equalizer with 4:57 remaining in regulation and later scoring the game-winner in the seventh minute of overtime to lead Virginia Tech to a dramatic 2-1 victory in front of 3,428 fans at Klöckner Stadium.
"This game was clearly disappointing," Virginia goalkeeper Ryan Burke said. "We did enough to win but were essentially beat by one man, which was certainly unfortunate."
Virginia Tech coach Oliver Weiss was effusive in his praise of Nyarko.
"He's the reason we're in every game," Weiss said. "He's a special kid and a special player."
Nyarko took advantage of a rare Virginia defensive lapse to tie the game at 1-1. He received a long punt from Tech goalkeeper Chase Harrison and beat several Virginia defenders. As he was falling to the ground, he sent his shot just past a diving Burke.
Virginia coach George Gelnovatch said he was not pleased with the failure of the Cavaliers' transition defense.
"We lost our concentration on No. 12 [Nyarko] for a second," he said. "We just didn't take care of our lead, allowed them back into the game, and it caught up with us."
In the seventh minute of overtime, Burke punched a Tech header out of the box. The ball, however, found an open Nyarko, who delivered the knock-out punch with a shot that settled in the back left corner of the net. Nyarko now has eight goals for the season.
"I saved the header, but [Nyarko] was unmarked and wide open, and he finished it," Burke said.
The Cavaliers (11-3-2, 5-2-0 ACC) failed to take advantage of a number of promising first-half scoring opportunities. Junior forward Adam Cristman had several breakaway chances on which he failed to convert. In the 30th minute, Cristman found himself with only the goalkeeper to beat on the left side of the net.
"The goalkeeper caught me off-guard coming out so fast," Cristman said. "I did what I could to get it on goal as quickly as possible from kind of a wide angle, but he made a good play."
With just over nine minutes remaining in the first half, Cristman beat Harrison and took a shot on the wide open net. Out of nowhere, however, Tech defender Brad Collins streaked in and deflected Cristman's shot away from the goal line. Cristman would have another shot knocked away by a Hokie defender in the 65th minute.
"They made two really good plays on the line to clear those off," Cristman said. "Sometimes it just doesn't fall your way."
The victory gave Tech its first point in the Adelphia Commonwealth Challenge. Virginia currently leads the Challenge 1.5-1.0.
Virginia's next and final regular-season game is against No. 19 Wake Forest Friday in Winston-Salem. The Cavaliers will hit the practice field Monday afternoon to start preparing for the Demon Deacons.
"It's time to get back on the horses," Burke quipped. "Isn't that what they say?"
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