Strong second half lifts Virginia past Virginia Tech

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

In the third meeting of the 2020-21 season, Virginia (6-5-1, 2-1 ACC spring) scored both of its goals in the second half in a 2-0 victory over Virginia Tech (4-5-2, 0-3 ACC spring) on Friday at Klöckner Stadium.

The Cavaliers produced their third clean sheet of the spring and have won three-straight matches at home.

After the Cavaliers couldn’t cash in on a pair of quality chances in the first half, they broke through just 1:55 into the second stanza on a goal by Kaya Ignacio (Georgetown, Texas). The freshman scored his second goal of the 2020-21 season when he one touched a cross from Nick Berghold (Wingdale, N.Y.) that beat the Virginia Tech goalkeeper to the top of the goal, bouncing off the crossbar and landing across the goal line for the eventual game-winning score.

Virginia made it 2-0 a little over 10 minutes later on a terrific sequence started in the back by Jeremy Verley (Kingston, Jamaica) and Joan Gibert Fuertes (Barcelona, Spain). Working from near midfield, Verley connected with Fuertes who then served the ball down the far sideline to a streaking Kevin Ogudugu (Oslo, Norway). The sophomore applied a devastating strike off the bounce from the top of the box that cleared the head of the Hokie goalkeeper for his second goal in three games.

“I think both teams knew how important this game was,” head coach George Gelnovatch said. “I’m really proud of the performance because it was really from top to bottom a great team performance. We’re young, but you can see in spurts (the potential). If you look at the two goals, they were two really good goals so there are some good spells of some really good stuff.”

Goalkeeper Alex Rando (New York, N.Y.) made five saves, matching a career-high established last week at North Carolina. The redshirt freshman helped deliver the Cavaliers’ third shutout of the spring and fifth of the 2020-21 season.

Virginia will play its final non-conference match of the spring on Tuesday (March 23) against Central Arkansas. The contest will air on ACCNX and is scheduled to start at 5 p.m.