THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 30, 1994 TAG: 9410300218
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JULIE GOODRICH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
The University of Virginia men's soccer team showed exactly why it has won the last three national championships, scoring three unanswered goals in a 12-minute span to defeat Old Dominion, 4-1, Saturday before a crowd of 3,400 at Klockner Stadium.
``(Coming back) is the sign of a true champion,'' said Old Dominion coach Ralph Perez. ``They scored those first two goals and boom, they put us right back down after we worked so hard to come back ourselves.''
One of the rarest occurrences in soccer, the own-goal, gave the Cavaliers (14-3, ranked 12th in the ISAA poll) a 1-0 lead less than 10 minutes into the game.
David Fitzmaurice brought the ball down the field and crossed to A.J. Wood, who was waiting at the top of the box.
ODU's Tom Manning attempted to clear the ball but misfired, sending the ball spinning over the head of goalie Michael Rodriguez. The ball hit in front of the net and bounced in for Old Dominion's first own-goal in 5 years.
``That's the toughest kind of goal to take,'' said Perez. ``It's a mistake that at this level we shouldn't be making.''
The Monarchs (7-7-1) regrouped at halftime and took away the sting of the own-goal by tying the game at the 28:22 mark of the second half. Jason Shedlock received the ball on the left side of the box on a pass from Byron Mitchell. Shedlock dribbled in and passed back to Mitchell, who made a cross to Milo Iniguez, charging in on the right side of the box.
Iniguez drilled a shot at keeper Mark Peters that found the left corner of the net.
The Cavaliers, however, were just getting warmed up. Less than three minutes later, Virginia's Mike Fisher took a corner kick and placed the ball in front of the net and keeper Nathan Olansen, who took over at the start of the second half.
Olansen saved a shot by Wood, but allowed a rebound. Billy Walsh was waiting and blasted a shot into the right side of the net for the go-ahead goal.
With the lead, the Cavaliers went for the knockout blow. Two minutes after Walsh's goal, Virginia started another rush toward the Old Dominion goal.
With the Cavaliers set up in front of the box, Olansen saved a shot by Wood, but allowed it to rebound back out in front. Nate Friends was there and took the ball, putting a spin move on a Monarchs defender before shooting into the right corner for a 3-1 Virginia lead.
Wood scored an unassisted goal on a rebound of his own shot with 13:41 left to play for the margin of victory.
``At times I think we played very well,'' Perez said. ``But Virginia is the best team we've played this year, no doubt.'' by CNB