It took nearly 60 minutes for midfielder Jeremy Barlow to get his chance to play Friday at Klöckner Stadium. He made the most of it however, punching in a close-range shot to give the Virginia men's soccer team (7-0-0) a 3-2 victory over the Boston College Eagles (3-3-0) in the sixth minute of overtime.
"It feels good to come in as a sub and make an impact on the game," Barlow said. It "shows why you should be playing."
The win marks the sixth time this season Virginia has won by a margin of only one goal.
The Cavaliers appeared to have the game in hand in the waning minutes of the second half. Sophomore forward Yannick Reyering had converted on a penalty kick drawn by fellow forward Adam Cristman to give Virginia the 2-1 lead in the 27th minute. Despite a frantic attack by Boston College, the defense held firm for the entire second half. Burke had little work to do as most shots could not get past the wall of defenders. However, with Virginia only five minutes from victory, Eagles forward Charlie Davies stiff-armed his defender in the box and knocked in Greg O'Neil's pass to silence the crowd of 3,839.
"I thought we were pretty solid for the most part, except for the first five minutes and the last five minutes," senior goalie Ryan Burke said.
The Cavaliers perhaps began relaxing a bit too prematurely. Virginia coach George Gelnovatch made five substitutions in the final 30 minutes, a move which caused matchup problems late in the contest.
"I made coaching mistakes, I made too many changes," Gelnovatch said. "I told the team it was my fault they scored the second goal."
Virginia had one last chance to avoid overtime but a textbook pass by Barlow in the final minute was whiffed by forward Matt Ayotte and recovered by Boston College.
In overtime, both sides appeared a bit sluggish. Virginia did not get very good opportunities until a simple throw in by Matt Williams. Cristman hit it to Reyering, who was being straddled by an Eagle defender. Instead of taking the difficult shot, Reyering wisely passed it up to Barlow who awkwardly but effectively nudged the ball in for a goal.
Despite giving up two goals, Virginia played well on the defensive end. Burke's night got off to a rocky start when in the opening minute he flew at Davies outside of the box. His diving stop was deflected to Eagle forward Stephen Hepburn who was able to knock it in. It was the third straight game in which Virginia has trailed. Fortunately for the Cavaliers, midfielder Nico Colaluca continued his strong season with a game-tying goal just two minutes later.
"He's putting points on the board this year," Gelnovatch said. "He has as many goals already this season than all of last year."
With the win, and a tie by No. 1 Southern Methodist, Virginia is in position to be announced as the top team this afternoon by both major soccer polls. If the Cavaliers make it, it will mark the first time since 2002 they have reached No. 1 in the country.
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