CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Sophomore Leo Afonso scored the equalizer in the 69th minute as Virginia men’s soccer (3-6-2) played UNCW (7-3-1) to a 1-1 draw on Tuesday afternoon at Klöckner Stadium.

GOALS

7’ – UNCW: Omar Aboutaleb (Jacob Evans)

69’ – UVA: Leo Afonso (Kaya Ignacio)

HOW IT HAPPENED

  • UNCW scored in the seventh minute to take the early 1-0 lead.
  • The Cavaliers had nine shots, three on goal, in the first half.
  • UVA had seven shots and five corner kicks in a 10-mintue span in the second half.
  • Virginia tied it up in the 69th minute when Afonso stole the ball in the midfield and found sophomore Kaya Ignacio running alongside. Ignacio played the ball forward for Afonso who had one touch and ripped a shot off his right foot in the upper left of the goal.

  • Goalie Holden Brown came up with a big save on a UNCW breakaway in the 103rd minute.

NOTABLES

  • It was Afonso’s third goal of the season.
  • Ignacio recorded his second assist of the year.
  • UVA led in shots (27-14) and corner kicks (16-3), with 15 shots on goal.
  • UNCW’s goalkeeper Gabriel Perrotta had 14 saves.

FROM HEAD COACH GEORGE GELNOVATCH

“Disappointing in the sense that, for long stretches of the game we had them pinned back with a lot of good chances. In a game like this, it is very disappointing to come out with a tie. However, the guys are playing well, other than the first 15 minutes. We made some personnel changes and some formation changes that caught us in that early goal. Every time we try something different, we pay the price. That is just the nature of the beast right now. Good response with the goal, good response with the chances, as this team has done all along. We started seven first year guys and a handful of sophomores. That is a good UNCW team. We have probably played eight playoff teams this season, so we will just keep going.”

UP NEXT

Virginia hosts Boston College on Friday, October 8 at 8 p.m. at Klöckner Stadium. The game will be broadcast on ACC Regional Sports Network.