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#7/#11 Virginia Men's Soccer Routs Temple On Senior Night, 6-0
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Nov. 8, 2002
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The University of Virginia men’s soccer team (#7 NSCAA, #11 Soccer America) recorded a 6-0 shutout victory over the visiting Temple Owls in a non-conference match in front of 2,234 spectators at UVa’s Kl?ckner Stadium on Senior Night. Seven Virginia fourth-year players were honored prior to the start of playing in their last regular season match in a contest where five different UVa players scored a goal to lift the Cavaliers to their seventh consecutive win and to a perfect 12-0-0 record at home this season.
Virginia’s Ryan Gibbs (West Chester, Pa./East) put the Cavaliers ahead 1-0 early and scored the game-winning goal (his seventh goal of the season) at 12:36 when Eric Solomon (Livingston, N.J./Livingston) and Kenny Arena (Fairfax, Va./Oakton) assisted on Gibbs’ game-winning score. Solomon directed a corner kick to Arena who was positioned in the box, and Arena headed Solomon’s cross towards the goal and appeared to have almost scored the goal himself. However, Gibbs came sliding in from the flank and chipped the ball into the goal off of his foot for the first score of the match.
The Cavaliers’ Alecko Eskandarian (Montvale, N.J./Bergen Catholic) scored his team-leading 22nd goal of the season and made it a 2-0 game at 21:12 when he dribbled the ball down the endline, faked several Owl defenders, and converted an almost improbable shot due to the angle he shot it and placed the ball into the far corner of the goal to give UVa a two-goal lead. Virginia took its 2-0 lead into the locker room at halftime.
UVa first-year Phillip Long (Wilson, N.C./Hunt) scored back-to-back goals (his third and fourth goals of the season) at the 54:32 and 78:14 minute marks to give the Cavaliers a 4-0 lead. Long’s first goal was assisted on by a pair of crosses by teammates Sean Feeney (Manasquan, N.J./Christian Brothers Academy) and Rob Wright (Virginia Beach, Va./First Colonial) before Kirk Dinnall (Newton, Mass./Beaver Country Day) found Long streaking down the flank on his second goal.
Virginia’s Dinnall recorded his second assist of the match on a goal by Paul Johnson (Princeton, N.J./The Hun School of Princeton) at 79:02 when Dinnall fired a shot that almost made it into the goal before Johnson came running into the box and blasted a short shot to make the game 5-0. After dishing out two assists, Dinnall scored a goal himself with 6:31 remaining (83:29 mark) after Jeff Tuman (Chalfont, Pa./Central Bucks West) played a ball upfield to him where he connected on a one-timer for his first goal of the season. Dinnall’s goal gave UVa a 6-0 lead on Tuman’s first career assist. The Cavaliers would hold on for the win en route to their largest margin of victory this year.
UVa goalkeeper s Brett Mayer-Aschhoff (Charlottesville, Va./Albemarle) and David Comfort (Richmond, Va./Monacan) teamed together to help the Cavaliers record their sixth shutout of the season. Temple goalkeeper Patrick Hannigan made a game-high ten saves but allowed six goals in a losing effort.
With the victory, Virginia’s record improves to 13-5-0 overall, while the loss drops Temple’s record to 6-13-0 on the year. UVa improved to 2-0-0 all-time against Temple in men’s soccer.
Virginia will return to action on Thursday, November 15th when #4 UVa faces the #5 seeded Duke Blue Devils in the 2002 Atlantic Coast Conference Championships. The contest is the first match of the tournament and is scheduled to begin at 3:00 PM at the SAS Stadium in Cary, N.C.
Scoring 1 2 FTemple (6-13-0) 0 0 0Virginia (13-5-0) 2 4 6
Goals: Virginia – Gibbs (Solomon, Arena) @ 12:36, Eskandarian (unassisted) @ 21:12,Long (Feeney, Wright) @ 54:32, Long (Dinnall) @ 78:14,Johnson (Dinnall) @ 79:02, Dinnall (Tuman) @ 83:29.Temple – none.Shots: Virginia 29, Temple 8.Corner Kicks: Virginia 4, Temple 3.Saves: Temple 10, Virginia 4 (Mayer-Aschhoff 4, Comfort 0.)Fouls: Virginia 14, Temple 9.Offsides: Virginia 2, Temple 2.Cautions: Virginia 1 – Vide, Temple 1 – Zimmerman.Attendance: 2,234.
— UVa —