Sprinting and swerving in this charged October night went graduate midfielder Daniel Mangarov. He beelined for the corner flag and then changed direction, knee sliding toward a cameraman, slapping hands over the fence with an excited young fan.
Catharsis, of a sort.
The celebrations Friday night against No. 19 Virginia Tech, after Mangarov’s opening goal and Virginia’s second, after the final buzzer blared, told of everything. They told of how the world, disorientingly off-keel the last month, had finally righted itself. They told of how the Cavaliers (3-4-3, 1-2-2 ACC) had beaten the Hokies (6-3-1, 1-3-0 ACC) 2-1, at Klöckner Stadium, in a roaring and riotous affair.
“Wind in our sail,” Coach George Gelnovatch said.
“It was amazing, winning in front of this crowd,” junior midfielder Albin Gashi said.
“It feels amazing, as you can tell, especially in front of our fans, especially in front of the alumni, as well,” senior goalkeeper Joey Batrouni said. “Big time.”
The fans came. They came and packed the stands and blanketed the hill. They came despite their team’s wobbling on the verge of a historic winless streak, which had reached six games entering Friday’s match. They came, and they yelled, and they screamed. And they got what they wanted.
Mangarov opened the scoring in the 42nd minute. He sized up a free kick from far away, more than 30 yards. It might as well have been in Blacksburg, so unlikely did a shot from there seem of going in.
The ball arrowed toward the goal and Virginia Tech senior goalkeeper Cooper Wenzel followed. But then, he stopped and tried to scramble the other way — the ball had deflected off the wall and taken a catastrophic touch. It bounced once and nestled into the center of the goal.
So off went Mangarov, toward the corner flag and then the cameraman and then the young fan, followed by his teammates as the stands rattled. A team that has gotten exactly zero breaks the last month or so finally caught some luck of its own.
“I’m tired of being the victim,” Gelnovatch said. “But we have been on the wrong end of things, and you get a goal like that, you take it.”
Virginia, suddenly fired up, finally on momentum’s good side, clapped its way into the halftime locker room. It felt like they were on top of the world.
Not long after, the Cavaliers felt like they were on top of the universe. In the 55th minute, after a corner, the ball rolled to the top of the box. In came Gashi, striding forward, preparing to hammer a half-volley as hard as he possibly could.
Then a voice whispered in his ear.
“I just heard [assistant coach Matt] Chulis’ voice before I hit that,” Gashi said. “And it was like, keep it on the ground, keep it going.”
Gashi had taken similar shots throughout the season. He had hit them as hard as he could, snatching them over the bar. So the coaches, Chulis in particular, instructed him to ease off and focus on technique. He listened.
“And it went in,” Gashi said. “Amazing feeling.”
The bench flooded onto the field, and they formed one bouncing mass out there, 36 days of agony coalescing into one euphoric celebration. The result, a first win in more than a month, seemed decided.
Not quite. Virginia Tech scored in the 80th minute after freshman forward Alex Perez sent a teasing ball into the box, where sophomore midfielder Yones Kireh arrived to finish it off. Batrouni nearly pulled off an incredible save, but the ball squirmed under his arm. He sat on his haunches after that, staring into the goal.
“I had a hand to it,” Batrouni said. “Sometimes they just slip through, and what can you do? Yeah, just gotta keep going.”
Batrouni had little to be sorry for. His fingerprints coated the win, in the form of 11 saves and unwavering play. He also brought gushing energy, a common theme Friday night from the players and the fans.
But the atmosphere, after the goal, suddenly turned muted, worried. The tone settled to a low murmur.
“You gotta defend,” Gelnovatch said. “They turn up the dials. They start taking chances and crossing balls in. So gotta be ready, and we did a good job to close that out.”
Virginia saw it through. The Hokies never created a clear-cut chance for an equalizer. The game finally ended with junior defender Parker Sloan crunching a tackle and screaming, and a few moments later the buzzer came.
The bench stormed the field. Two players at once jumped on Batrouni, then three more. Everyone milled around, high-fiving and hugging. Batrouni grabbed the Commonwealth Clash sign. “The Good Old Song” played.
These are the scenes that have been missing. A loss would have left Virginia mired in a seven-game winless streak, its worst such period since 1967. As it is, the Cavaliers entered the game 112th in the NCAA’s Rating Percentage Index, which is used to select and seed teams for the NCAA Tournament.
But any hope of rescuing the season rested, it seemed, in Friday night’s performance. The win vaulted Virginia to eighth in the ACC.
“I hope it’s the catalyst,” Gelnovatch said.
The team had made a change before the game. They got together, Gashi said, and worked on uniting, on using the struggles to bond.
“Of course, it’s a tough time for us right now,” Gashi said. “So we got together, talked together, got on the same page. And the coaches did a great job. So I think we got even closer.”
That united team, buoyed by a monumental win before a massive crowd, could emerge in this back half of the season. It will have to beat No. 10 James Madison — Tuesday at Klöckner at 7 p.m. — to keep the momentum going.
That is a tall task, another crucible in the trajectory of this season. A season that suddenly has hope.
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