RAMS THRILL JAM-PACKED SPORTS BACKERS WITH 3-1 WIN OVER VIRGINIA
Loehr, Rosenbaum, Slusser all tally goals in victory
Box Score
RICHMOND, Va. – It was the largest crowd in VCU’s Sports Backers Stadium history and it got exactly what it came for as the Virginia Commonwealth University men’s soccer team captured a thrilling 3-1 victory over in-state rival Virginia on Saturday night.
Over 1,800 people saw the Rams march to the win as the Black and Gold now improve to 2-3-0 on the season, while the Cavaliers fall to 2-3-0.
“It was a very important win for us,” Head Coach Tim O’Sullivan said. “Not only because it is Virginia and they are a very good team with a very good coach, but it’s important for where we are in our season. We had three losses and one win and this was important.”
It was a physical battle from the start as the two teams combined for 28 first half fouls and three yellow cards were dished out in the first 45 minutes of action.
From the start VCU showed it would be aggressive on the offensive side as senior David Rosenbaum (Washington, D.C.) and junior Owusu Sekyere (Suame-Kumasi, Ghana) create numerous scoring chances in the first 10 minutes, but none resulted in a goal.
The Cavaliers displayed their speed throughout the contest with a number of close range chances in the first half, but senior goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra (Woodbridge, Va.) was outstanding between the pipes and kept the game scoreless going into the 39th minute.
Virginia changed that when freshman Michael Denkewitz (Bremen, Germany) was called for a foul inside the box that gave the Cavaliers a penalty kick, which Tony Tchani capatilized on and gave UVA a 1-0 advantage.
The lead would not last long as senior midfielder Gerson Dos Santos (Sao Paulo, Brazil) gathered a loose ball just inside the box and sent a beautiful feed to a cutting Evan Slusser (Prince George, Va.) who deposited his first collegiate goal into the bottom right corner of the net to even the score at 1-1 heading into halftime.
Both teams came out of the locker rooms slow as neither squad was able to create many scoring opportunities early in the second half.
Dos Santos would get involved once again in the 76th minute as he lofted a corner kick to the far side of the box where senior Dirk Dittrich (Stuttgart, Germany) sent a header pass to fellow German Jorit Loehr (Bremen, Germany) who rocketed a header into the top right part of the net to give the Rams a 2-1 lead.
The Rams defense was stellar all night long anchored by Dittrich, Denkewitz and Dykstra. Dykstra logged a season-high eight saves in the contest, many of them gave-saving stops.
After the Cavaliers brought their goalkeeper up for one last push in the final minute, Rosenbaum escaped down the right side on a breakaway and blasted a shot into an open goal with two seconds remaining to give the Black and Gold an exhilarating 3-1 home victory.
Virginia won the shots battle by a 19-9 count and the shots on goal by a tally of 10-3. However, all three of the Rams shots found the back of the net.
“Here we had a very good goal scoring chances and put them all away and that’s the difference in winning these games,” O’Sullivan said. “We found a way to take advantage of our chances and when you do that and finish them, that’s how you win games."
It was a battle throughout as a total of 50 fouls were dished out, 27 to Virginia and 23 to VCU.
The Rams are back in action on Wednesday evening as they travel across town to battle the University of Richmond in a 7 p.m. contest. |
