Dang Scores on Debut as Cavaliers Roll to 3-0 Victory

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The No. 13 Virginia men’s soccer team (1-0) opened its 81^st season of competition with a convincing 3-0 victory over Rider (0-1) on Thursday night (Aug. 22) at Klöckner Stadium as transfer, Nick Dang, announced his arrival with a goal on his Cavalier debut.

Goals (Assist)
10’ Virginia — Danny Mangarov (Reese Miller)
45’ Virginia — Kome Ubogu (Paul Wiese)
84’ Virginia — Nick Dang (Albin Gashi)

How it Happened:

• Rider jumped out early creating the game’s first dangerous chance in transition when a shot from Kevin Peprah came off the right post of the Virginia goal. A rebound attempt was directed wide of the opposite post.
• The Cavaliers responded quickly when in the 9^th minute, Reese Miller slipped a pass inside the box to Danny Mangarov. The midfielder rounded the goalkeeper and finished the chance to give Virginia an early one-goal advantage. The goal marked the third consecutive season in which Mangarov scored Virginia’s opening goal of the campaign.

• The Cavaliers continued to heap on the pressure creating dangerous chances in the Rider penalty area as Mangarov, Triton Beauvois and Cesar Cordova all came within inches of doubling the lead.
• With time winding down in the opening half, Virginia broke through again as Paul Wiese collected a ball on the outer edge of the penalty area and picked out Kome Ubogu who calmly headed it in for 2-0.

• The second half featured more promising chances for the Cavaliers who outshot the opposition by a margin of 9-2 in the final 45 minutes. With just over four minutes remaining in the game, Albin Gashi placed a curling free kick on top of the opposing six-yard-box where it was met by Dang whose thundering header iced the game at 3-0.

• In the 86^th minute of play, Virginia’s Alex Parvu was shown a red card after a challenge in the UVA defensive end. Virginia would see out the final four minutes with 10 men and preserve the clean sheet.

From Head Coach George Gelnovatch:
“One of the things we were trying to work on was being better in terms of coming out of our half with the ball. We made a couple adjustments to personnel and our formation, and I thought it looked good today. We scored two goals before the half which made a big difference. This was a good start, but we have a lot of work to do.”

Additional Notes:

• Mangarov scored his 11^th career goal. His first goal as a Cavalier came in his Virginia debut, also against Rider (8/29/22)
• Mangarov has scored Virginia’s first goal in each of the past three seasons (vs Rider 8/29/22), (vs Iona 8/24/23), (vs Rider 8/22/24)
• Nick Dang scored his first goal as a Cavalier and fifth of his career
• Dang becomes the first Cavalier to score on his UVA debut since Mangarov (8/9/22)
• Ubogu notched the 12^th goal of his career and scores for the first time since a win over Louisville (9/29/23)
• Reese Miller, Paul Wiese and Albin Gashi each provided assists
• Sophomore midfielder Cesar Cordova made his first collegiate start playing 78 minutes
• Cavalier debuts: Nick Dang, Hayes Wood, Alex Parvu, Luke Burns, Victor Akoum, Luc Mikula, Cameron Yriondo, Alex Parvu
• Virginia improves to 4-0-0 against Rider all-time
• The Cavaliers improve to 22-7 in season openers under head coach George Gelnovatch and have won nine of their last 10 opening matches