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Sept. 1, 2000
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The University of Virginia men’s soccer team opened its 2000 regular season by hosting the South Florida Bulls in the 2000 Virginia Soccer Classic Tournament in front of 1,328 spectators at Kl?ckner Stadium. UVa fell behind 1-0 before scoring three unanswered goals en route to a 3-2 victory over USF in the second game of the tournament. Maryland defeated Jacksonville by the score of 4-1 in the tournament’s first match.
South Florida scored the first goal of the evening when Ben Cowherd headed a corner kick from teammate Jeff Thwaites into the UVa goal at 28:57 to make it 1-0 USF. However, the Bulls score seemed to start up the Cavalier offense, as Virginia went on to record three goals over the next 13 minutes of play to pull out to a 3-1 lead.
UVa’s first goal came off a crossing pass from Kyle Martino (Westport, Conn. Staples) to Alecko Eskandarian (Montvale, N.J./Bergen Catholic). Eskandarian fired a shot that found the back of the Bulls net at 34:29 to knot the score at 1-1. Eskandarian’s goal was the first of his collegiate career as he was making his UVa debut.
Sheldon Barnes (Miramar, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas) gave Virginia a 2-1 lead at the 41:14 mark when he gathered a loose ball in front of the South Florida goal and booted a shot from straight on that resulted in a goal. Just under a minute and a half later, Ryan Trout (Media, Pa./Strath Haven) scored the eventual game-winning goal for UVa at 42:36 when when he looped in a shot from about 15 yards out on the right side of the box to give the Cavaliers a commanding 3-1 lead.
The Bulls pulled within one goal of Virginia when Greg Krauss scored on a header off a direct kick from Thwaites to make it a 3-2 contest. But that would be as close as South Florida would get, as UVa held on for a 3-2 victory.
Cavalier goalkeeper David Comfort (Richmond, Va./Monacan) made five saves in goal for UVa, while USF goalkeeper Troy Perkins posted a game-high six saves.
With the win, Virginia improves to 1-0-0 on the year, while the loss drops South Florida to 0-1-0 on the season. UVa improved to 2-0-0 all-time against USF.
The Cavaliers will now face the Jacksonville Dolphins in the final game of the tournament on Sunday, September 3rd. Prior to UVa’s match, Maryland will play South Florida at 12:00 noon in game three of tournament play. Both contests will be played at Kl?ckner Stadium.
Scoring 1 2 FSouth Florida (0-1-0) 1 1 2Virginia (1-0-0) 3 0 3
Goals: UVa 3 – Eskandarian (Martino) @ 34:29, Barnes @ 41:14, Trout @ 42:36. USF 2 – Cowherd (Thwaites) @ 28:57, Krauss (Thwaites) @ 68:53.
Shots: UVa 15, USF 12.
Saves: USF 6, UVa 5.
Corner Kicks: UVa 13, USF 4.
Fouls: UVa 24, USF 17.
Offsides: UVa 6, USF 0.
Cautions: USF 3 – Cowherd, Thwaites, Scrivens. UVa 2 – Arena, Totten.
Attendance: 1,328.