After the No. 2 Virginia men's soccer team took down Maryland, Virginia coach George Gelnovatch was highly impressed with the turnaround of senior forward Adam Cristman.
"I hope he scores his goals down the stretch," Gelnovatch said. "I think he'll score a few more for us."
Gelnovatch's prediction came true Friday night against the No. 23 Virginia Tech Hokies as an inspired Cristman registered a hat trick to give the Cavaliers a 3-1 victory and only their second road win of the year.
It was the first hat trick for a Virginia Cavalier in 142 games.
"I'm still in shock," Cristman said. "It's an unbelievable feeling to score a hat trick. Hopefully, this jumpstarts us again as we get ready for the second half of our season."
The game started like most road games this season for the Cavaliers -- slowly. Virginia could not get the early lead in the first half despite ample opportunities. Cristman had a couple of good shots in the opening minutes, an omen of things to come. Freshman midfielder Jonathan Villanueva had the best opportunity in the half when his shot from just inside the box passed over Hokie goalie Drew Czekanski but nailed the crossbar and sailed out of bounds.
In the second half, it did not take long for the Hokies to strike. Hokie midfielder Ben Nason crossed the ball to senior midfielder Brad Collins, whose shot ricocheted off a Virginia defender and into the goal for the lead. Despite a commanding lead in the shot category up to this point, it was the fourth straight time Virginia failed to score the opening goal on the road.
"We played well as a team tonight," Cristman said. "We fell behind. We picked the ball up and said we were going to get back in this."
The Cavaliers did what they had to do on the road -- answer quickly. The Hokies would only lead the game for 43 seconds as junior midfielder Nico Colaluca was able to find Cristman off a corner kick. The senior was able to redirect the ball in the goal for the equalizer.
The game appeared destined for overtime when it was still tied in the final 10 minutes, but Virginia's late-game heroics continued yet again this season.
Sophomore defender Matt Poole kicked a deep ball that would have made Virginia quarterback Jameel Sewell proud. Cristman ran it down and had a one-on-one with the goalie that he took advantage of with a solid strike into the back of the net.
The goal was Cristman's 12th game-winning goal of his career but only the first of the year. After not scoring a goal until the ninth game of the season, Cristman is now second on the team in points and appears ready to make his final year at Virginia a memorable one.
"We scored three goals because we played with a total team effort, Cristman said. "We defended like a team and we came here determined to win like a team."
The Cavaliers put the game away with less than four minutes left when senior midfielder Ian Holder found Cristman. After some fancy footwork around the defender he blasted a shot in the back corner and tipped his proverbial hat to the Cavalier faithful at the game.
Duke's 1-0 victory over North Carolina however, means that Virginia (13-2-0, 5-2-0 ACC) will remain one point back in the race for the ACC regular season championship with one week left.
Virginia will play its regular season finale Friday against No. 3 Wake Forest at Klöckner Stadium.
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