Virginia men’s soccer defeated Division III Mary Washington 2-0 Monday afternoon at Klöckner Stadium. The Cavaliers (6-7-3, 2-4-1 ACC) scored goals in the 15th and 56th minutes of the game and held the Eagles (8-4-2, 1-0-1 C2C) scoreless to win their final regular-season home game.
Virginia started out aggressive on offense, generating seven shots within the first 13 minutes of the game. The Cavaliers then capitalized on that offensive attack with a goal in the 15th minute by freshman forward Kome Ubogu.
Junior midfielder Jeremy Verley took a free kick just outside of the box and played the ball across the box to freshman defender Jesper Moksnes, who passed it back to Ubogu in front of the net. Ubogu headed the ball into the back of the net to put Virginia up 1-0.
Early in the second half, the Cavaliers had a chance to take a 2-0 lead after freshman forward Michael Tsicoulias was fouled in the box and awarded a penalty kick. Tsicoulias took the penalty, but it was saved by senior goalkeeper Ken Kurtz to keep the score at 1-0.
Virginia doubled its lead in the 56th minute with a goal from senior defender Oliver Gerbig. Gerbig had a glancing header off of Verley’s corner kick to put the ball past Kurtz and into the net. The goal was the first of Gerbig’s career at Virginia and gave the Cavaliers a two-goal lead that they maintained for the remainder of the game.
Virginia outshot Mary Washington 20-14 in the match. Sophomore goalkeeper Holden Brown made six saves in the game to earn the Cavaliers their third shutout of the season.
“We are progressing as a young group,” Coach George Gelnovatch said. “Today was another step in that direction and we will look to carry it to Duke. We had two weeks without a midweek game, so it was an opportunity to get a run in with a different opposition and we were able to play some guys that we haven’t been playing much as we get closer to the ACC tournament.”
Virginia travels to No. 18 Duke Friday for its last regular season match before moving on to postseason play. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
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