It did not come easy but it came nevertheless. One minute away from Virginia's second straight scoreless match, sophomore forward Chris Agorsor scored the game's only goal to give the No. 12 Cavaliers a hard-fought 1-0 double-overtime victory against a formidable Virginia Commonwealth squad. The win improved the Cavaliers' record to 6-2, heading into a tough Friday matchup against No. 5 North Carolina.
Agorsor's game-winner came courtesy of a long throw-in by sophomore defender Greg Monaco with one minute remaining in the second overtime period. The Cavaliers struggled all night to take advantage of Monaco's long throw-ins, but this time, the ball landed right at the feet of Agorsor, who turned and slid a low shot just past the outstretched fingertips of VCU junior goalkeeper Gabriel Rodriguez, prompting shouts of jubilation from the Virginia faithful. It was Agorsor's first goal of the season.
"It was one of those times where the ball fell to me," Agorsor said, "and I was able to turn and get a shot off and this one went in the net."
The goal capped off an otherwise uninspiring night for the Cavalier attack, which increased its intensity as the game wore on but had problems finding the opposing net against a big, physical VCU defense that entered the game allowing just 1.33 goals per contest. Small attackers like 5-foot-8 Neil Barlow and 5-foot-9 Chris Agorsor struggled to get around imposing Ram defenders like 6-foot-4, 200-pound, junior defender James Neighbour.
But even when unimpeded by its bulky adversaries, Virginia still could not convert. One play that drew particularly frustrating groans from the crowd came during the 83rd minute, from a shot by sophomore midfielder Tony Tchani, who got an open look at the goal from the top of the box, collected himself and hit a floater a mile over the crossbar. Senior midfielder Jonathan Villanueva nearly made up for his teammate's poor effort when - with two seconds left in regulation - he unleashed a shot from 30 yards out that crept inches over the bar.
"VCU's an ACC-caliber team," Virginia coach George Gelnovatch said. "This is not a game where you say, 'Hey, you didn't score goals.' This is not an easy game to score goals. This was a good team and a good soccer game. It was probably one of the best games in Kl
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