Men’s Soccer: Cavaliers bounce back with 5-0 victory over Saint Joseph’s

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

On the back of a brace from Reese Miller, the Virginia men’s soccer team defeated Saint Joseph’s by a score of 5-0 on Thursday afternoon at Klöckner Stadium. The match featured the first start in a Virginia shirt for graduate transfer Hayes Wood, who notched his first goal as a Cavalier.  

HOW IT HAPPENED

After just 10 minutes of action, Virginia (2-1-0) broke the ice scoring the first goal of the match. Triton Beauvois made his way into a dangerous area on the outer edge of the penalty box and lofted his cross into Miller who finished his chance from inside six yards.  

In the 24th minute of play, the Cavaliers won a free kick in the center of the field 10 yards from the penalty area. Danny Mangarov curled his attempt into the area where it found the head of Nick Dang, who nudged it past the goalkeeper to double the Virginia lead. UVA took a 2-0 advantage into the halftime break.  

The game settled down following the second-half kickoff as Virginia continued to dominate possession, wearing down its opponent with crisp passing.   

The Cavaliers broke through again in the 71st minute when Wood ran onto a long curling ball down the sideline from Paul Wiese that was intelligently left by Kome Ubogu. With an impressive display of power to shrug off a Hawks defender, Wood slipped the ball past the goalkeeper to notch his first goal as a Cavalier, tilting the game heavily in Virginia’s favor at 3-0.

First start ✅
First goal ✅

Introducing Hayes Wood.#GoHoos pic.twitter.com/35lhcmbzrr

— Virginia Men’s Soccer (@UVAMenSoccer) August 29, 2024

Less than two minutes later, UVA increased its advantage once again when Umberto Pelà lofted a pass beyond the Saint Joseph’s back line, where Miller sidestepped the goalkeeper to score his second of the match.

Max Talley put the finishing touch on the game, as the sophomore midfielder registered his first collegiate goal on a perfectly placed shot from outside the box to secure a 5-0 win for the Cavaliers.

MAX. TALLEY.

His first as a Cavalier!#GoHoos pic.twitter.com/w47MZZGGZ9

— Virginia Men’s Soccer (@UVAMenSoccer) August 29, 2024

GOALS
UVA: 11’ — Reese Miller (Triton Beauvois)
UVA: 24’ — Nick Dang (Danny Mangarov)
UVA: 71’ — Hayes Wood (Paul Wiese)
UVA: 73’ — Reese Miller (Umberto Pelà)
UVA: 84’ — Max Talley

ADDITIONAL NOTES 

• Virginia scored five goals in a game for the first time since a 5-0 win over La Salle (9/13/22) 

• Wood made his first start for Virginia and scored his first goal as a Cavalier—Wood made 52 starts and scored 21 goals in five seasons at Lipscomb 

• Miller and Beauvois linked up on a goal for the second time this season  

• Miller’s opening goal marked his first since his freshman season in an ACC Quarterfinal match against Pitt (11/6/22) 

• The pair of goals for Miller marks a career-high and doubles his career total (4) 

• Dang notched his second goal in three games 

• Talley scored the first goal of his Virginia career in his fifth career appearance 

• Dang and Miller each lead Virginia with two goals scored this season 

• Wiese notched his second assist of the season to lead the team 

• Joaquin Brizuela made his Viginia debut logging 23 minutes 

• Virginia outshot Saint Joseph’s by a margin of 19-3 

• UVA has held its opponents to five or less shot attempts in each game this season 

• The Cavaliers put 8 shots on frame and did not allow their opponents a shot on goal 

• Virginia controlled 71-percent of possession for the game  

FROM HEAD COACH GEORGE GELNOVATCH

“That was a lesson learned from the Colgate game. We thought that [Saint Joseph’s] would try something similar and they did. We got our goals in the first half to take the sting out of the game and then just wore them down. In the first 20 minutes of that second half, it was pass, pass, pass. We put a couple of fresh guys in—goal. That broke them, and then the fourth one came.

“This game was important coming off the Colgate game. I haven’t experienced a game like that in a long time so it was important to get back out here and really go through the same exercise and learn from it. So, when we run into that again, we know how to deal with it.”

UP NEXT

Virginia travels to College Park to take on Maryland on Monday. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.