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…