By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics
For the last 15 minutes Tuesday night, playing against the nation's 17th-ranked team, William & Mary needed to make up a goal while playing a man down. With three corner chances in the final 75 seconds, the Tribe nearly pulled it off.
Instead, Virginia Tech escaped Martin Family Stadium at Albert-Daly Field with a 3-2 win. The Tribe never stopped attacking, not even playing 10 vs. 11, and head coach
Chris Norris admired that.
"I think that is a testament to how they felt the game was running," said Norris, referring to the Hokies. "I think their players knew that if they weren't careful, we could get back in it even with 10 men. We created some really good chances even there right at the end.
"The idea that you couldn't tell we were playing with 10 men the last 15 minutes and we created some chances, that we didn't get too exposed defensively even though we were a man down, that speaks to the fact that those guys knew they were in a game. I'm really pleased with the fight we put up tonight."
The Tribe (2-2) took leads of 1-0 and 2-1, but each time the Hokies (4-1-2) answered within 10 minutes. Tech scored the winner with 18:02 remaining, and W&M's
Cole Knapp drew a straight red card with 14:42 left.
Tech had only three shots the rest of the way. W&M had three in the final five minutes, including one by
John Eberle on a corner that cleared the crossbar.
The Hokies took their first, and only, lead on Pol Monells' goal in the 72nd minute. From midfield, Cameron Joice played the ball ahead to Conor Pugh, who was to the right of the 18-yard box. He passed across Kahlil Dover, who deflected it to Monnels.
Eight yards out to the left of the goal, Monnels beat a diving
Connor Andrews for the winner.
"It was a little bit of a defensive breakdown, and we gave them a transition moment where we got pulled apart a little bit in the back," Norris said. "They're very good in those moments when they get opportunities to serve into the box."
The game wasn't four minutes old before William & Mary took a 1-0 lead.
Nathan Messer took a long pass from
Joe Core and beat Tech keeper Ben Martino to the ball just inside the 18-yard box. Messer had no one in front of him after that and converted with 41:32 left in the first half.
Virginia Tech tied it up less than 10 minutes later. Danny Flores set it up by nailing a shot off the crossbar. Joice collected it on the other side and fed to Camron Lennon for the equalizer.
"When you're playing a team you know is very talented and dangerous, you never want to look a gift horse in the mouth in terms of scoring goals against them," Norris said. "But sometimes you can get a goal too early and then feel like, 'OK, we have something to protect now.'
"I think that came into play a little bit with us. They equalized 10 minutes later, which probably made us a little bit edgy."
The game remained tied until
Diba Nwegbo's goal, assisted by Messer and Eberle, gave W&M a 2-1 lead with 31:39 remaining in the game. Less than three and a half minutes later, Tech got the equalizer on a goal by Jacob Labovitz.
Norris was pleased with the play of Andrews, who was playing his first regular-season game since his freshman year in 2018. He finished with six saves.
"Fantastic," Norris said. "He had a great preseason, and we've been really impressed with his sharpness and training. We feel like we have a really good goalkeeping corps overall. I thought he managed the game really well."
Albeit in defeat, the Tribe did something that neither Duke nor Virginia did against the Hokies — score multiple goals. Norris believes that's something to build on heading into Saturday's match at Hofstra.
"To score two goals against these guys is a positive sign for us," he said. "I'm pretty pleased overall — with the exception of the result."
