One thing was obvious the moment the No. 3 Virginia men's soccer team took on the No. 21 UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos: This game would not be for the faint of heart.
Last year, the two teams ripped and clawed their way to a combined 54 fouls and eight yellow cards. Last night, the teams combined for 48 fouls, eight yellow and two red cards as Virginia survived 1-0 to win their third Virginia Soccer Classic and push their record to 2-0 on the year.
The physical nature was set up early with four fouls in the opening six minutes of play, most of them loud enough for all 2,640 fans in attendance to hear. The hard tackles and holds all came to a head in the 42nd minute. Sophomore forward Yannick Reyering, who missed last year's brawl due to an NCAA violation, was diving for a loose ball going out of bounds when a UCSB defender slid into him. The call brought both benches to their feet and in the end resulted in the red card ejections of UCSB defender Alfonso Motagalvan and Gaucho head coach Tim Vom Steeg.
"The referee makes a big difference in the game," senior forward Adam Cristman said. "Keeping everything under wraps, taking care of a red card where last time that might not even have been a foul."
Virginia would eventually take advantage of being a man up in the 47th minute. Junior midfielder Jeremy Barlow caught up to a deflected free kick by Reyering and was able to knock it past the goalie for the lead.
"We were screaming at him to follow the shot," Virginia coach George Gelnovatch said. "He was fresh too, which helped because he got in there and had fresh legs."
Despite the one-man advantage, UCSB proved unwilling to go down without a fight. In the last 20 minutes, Virginia seemed unable to hold on to the ball, putting pressure on senior goalie Ryan Burke to keep the lead.
"They really took it to us and fortunately we were able to weather the storm," Burke said. "There were some scary moments down the stretch."
Virginia came into this game dominating their opponents in corner kicks, but could only manage three this time. UCSB, on the other hand, had 14 corner kicks, including one in the final 10 seconds which drew some worried glances from the Virginia faithful.
"I thought Ryan Burke did an outstanding job," Gelnovatch said. "I didn't see any negligent plays -- they basically rammed it down our throats and I thought we dealt with it from preventing great chances."
Virginia had their hands full earlier this week against the Davidson Wildcats in another 1-0 victory. Freshman midfielder Jonathan Villaneuva garnered cheers from the biggest season-opening crowd in 10 years. In the 22nd minute, his quick feet paid off when he drew a penalty kick. Reyering was able to step up and knock it in for the pivotal goal.
"The goalie made it very difficult for me," Reyering said. "Usually I wait until a goalie chooses a side, he was moving around the line and made it more difficult, but I placed it good enough."
The rest of the game consisted of near misses for both teams. as the Cavaliers were unable to put the game out of reach with a second score.
"We had some pretty good chances for a second goal," Gelnovatch said. "That would have deflated the game."
Virginia is still more than content to go home as winners.
"It's the second game of the season; we're playing against a very good team in an animated game," Gelnovatch said. "As a coach I'm very excited about that."
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