The No. 3 Virginia men's soccer team (3-0-0) has done an excellent job stacking the roster with talented players. Saturday against the George Mason Patriots (1-1-0), the Cavaliers proved it, using 18 different players en route to a 2-0 victory.
A great deal of attention going into the game was on junior midfielder Nico Colaluca, but for all the wrong reasons. Earlier in the week he was charged with reckless driving after his car struck a fellow student. On the field against the Patriots, however, Colaluca was able to focus on the game.
"It's been a tough week," Colaluca said. "I've been going through a lot with what happened. Every time I come out to the field I leave everything behind and just play."
Throughout the first half, Colaluca tried to feed the ball in to sophomore forward Yannick Reyering. In the 30th minute of play, Colaluca was on the receiving end of a bending pass by defender Matt Poole. Colaluca outran his defender and knocked a shot just to the left of the goalie and in the corner of the net to give Virginia the advantage.
"As you play good teams, the longer the game is 0-0, the more life you give that team," Virginia coach George Gelnovatch said. "That goal deflates that team a little bit and put us in control."
Things got worse for the Patriots in the second half. George Mason defender Jacob Weitz was given his second yellow card when he pushed another player, earning him a red card ejection in the 63rd minute. Despite being a man down, the Patriots had a tremendous corner kick opportunity just moments later but Josh Fleming's shot deflected off a Virginia defender and nailed the post to fly out of bounds.
Virginia then took over, scoring the second goal in a game for the first time this year. Midfielder Jeremy Barlow served the ball in from the corner and was able to find senior midfielder Ian Holder who went completely horizontal to head the ball into the back of the net.
"Jeremy and I made a little eye contact," Holder said. "He put it right over the guy far post and I was lucky enough to be there."
Once again, Virginia employed a very physical and aggressive game plan. Forty-eight fouls were called in Virginia's last game against UCSB; this time it was 46, with eight yellow cards. The physicality appeared to disrupt George Mason's composure, including their freshman phenom Richard Edgar, who got a yellow card in the opening minutes and was generally a non-factor.
"They were getting frustrated," Colaluca said. "We were not going to take this game lightly. We did that a couple of times last year, but we put pressure on them and I think we did well."
Virginia must now look towards the No. 6 UCLA Bruins (0-1-1). The game has been rescheduled for tonight at 7 p.m. due to tropical depression Ernesto. Despite the high preseason ranking, UCLA has struggled so far this season. Saturday, they were humbled by No. 4 Maryland, 4-1. Still, UCLA has the talent to defeat any team in the country.
"We dealt with George Mason; now it's time to focus on UCLA," Holder said. "It's going to be a battle."
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