The goal seemed so simple. The ball pinged from one player to a second to a third, short and crisp one-touch passes, and then to a fourth.
The fourth batted it home. That took just one touch, too.
The Virginia goal, its third, scored in the 53rd minute by freshman midfielder Luke Burns, capped a brisk recovery from an early two-goal deficit to American. It came sandwiched between two goals from senior forward Kome Ubogu. The first arrived five minutes before Burns’s goal and the second eight minutes after, cementing a 4-2 win for the Cavaliers (6-4-3, 2-2-2 ACC) over the Eagles (3-4-6, 2-2-1 Patriot League) at Klöckner Stadium.
The American goals, two identical strikes of lightning seven minutes apart, left the home team befuddled. American junior midfielder Toshi Davis scored in the sixth minute and senior forward Sam Hershey tallied in the 13th, the Eagles twice slipping in behind the Cavalier defense.
“Soccer is weird,” senior defender Paul Wiese said. “I didn’t have the feeling that we took them too easily. But yeah, sometimes it happens.”
Others offered a different explanation, that Friday’s thriller at Boston College, a grueling game after grueling travel, wore out the players. That left them lethargic at the beginning.
“It starts with the warmup,” Ubogo said. “Some of the guys were a little bit tired or whatnot.”
Whatever the case, the two early goals threatened to torpedo a team that has recently looked so buoyant. Virginia entered riding a three-game win streak, with successive victories over No. 19 Virginia Tech, No. 10 James Madison and Boston College. Those wins reversed the decline of a season that, over a six-game winless streak, looked headed on a downward spiral from mediocrity to dumpster fire.
This matchup seemed as straightforward as things might get as the Cavaliers, in their final four games, tried to wrestle their way to NCAA Tournament viability. Not so, at least at first.
The comeback, though, almost always seemed inevitable. Virginia completed it, coming back to win from two goals down for the first time since 2012 and from one goal down for the first time since 2013.
That was one piece of program history. The other belonged to Wiese, whose assist pushed him to No. 10 in the program’s all-time assists standings.
“It just fills me with pride,” Wiese said. “This is a historic program, and then I can be part of such an unbelievable group of players that played here. Today I’m glad we got the win. And tomorrow, I’m probably going to smile, look at it and call my parents. And enjoy it.”
His assist came on Virginia’s first goal, when American junior goalkeeper Matthew Tibbets badly misjudged a punch on a corner, popping the ball straight up, dangling it over the six-yard box. There, of course, went junior defender Nick Dang, the team leader in goals, climbing over everyone and nudging the ball into the net.
It took three minutes of the second half for Virginia to equalize, as Grant Howard wormed his way to the endline and crossed to Ubogu, who slotted home. Then came Burns’s goal, and then Ubogu’s second, a glancing header at the front post.
“Coaches are always telling me, make the run near post,” Ubogu said. “So [I] got to the near post, flicked it in.”
That synopsis accounted for both of his goals. Gelnovatch, meanwhile, could pat himself on the back, having made a raft of halftime changes that made direct impacts. Burns scored, freshman defender Alex Parvu assisted Ubogu’s second goal and David Okorie helped out as well.
Everything after the fourth goal, which rippled the net in the 61st minute, felt calm. But senior goalkeeper Joey Batrouni ended up being briefly busy in the final five minutes. He made a one-on-one save, palmed away a high shot and made an impressive diving reaction stop.
“He’s just an unbelievable goalie,” Wiese said.
Gelnovatch removed some of his better players late, cognizant of a big game Saturday at 7 p.m. at home against Syracuse.
“I accepted that they were going to get a chance or two,” Gelnovatch said. “Because we made all those changes to try to save guys for Saturday. And Joey did a good job of making sure they didn’t score.”
So now the focus swivels to the next game. A win, with only two regular season games remaining after it, could push Virginia from eighth place in the ACC to fourth, important for securing home field advantage in the ACC Tournament.
Virginia, though, is going one game at a time. Its win streak is now at four. The goal is to make it to five.
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