Tribe Ties No. 15 Virginia Tech

Sophomore forward Price Thomas scored the lone W&M goal in the contest.

09/22/07 11:00PM

Williamsburg - For the second time in less than a week, the William and Mary men’s soccer team played to a double-overtime draw with an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent, this time tying No. 15-ranked Virginia Tech, 1-1, on Saturday evening at Albert-Daly Field. The Tribe scored less than three minutes into the contest, but the Hokies found the equalizer early in the second half. A young, but stout Tribe defense withheld the Tech attack to forge the tie. W&M moved to 2-3-2 on the season, while the Hokies are 5-1-1 following the draw.

“I felt we played very well against a tough, nationally-ranked opponent,” head coach Chris Norris said. “I was con-cerned about a let down coming in after playing a 110-minute match against North Carolina earlier in the week, but I am pleased with how the guys played and our ability to get a result against a team the caliber of Virginia Tech. For us to come out and play a competitive double-overtime match for the second time in a week was great to see. Our defense continued to play well against another explosive offensive, and we showed that we can be a dangerous counter-attacking team, which will bode well for us later in the season.”

The Tribe struck first against VT with a goal from sophomore forward Price Thomas at the 2:12 mark. Following a foul by Virginia Tech, junior back Brock Jones sent a long ball toward the offensive third, redshirt freshman forward Alan Koger flicked a header into the box. Hokie goalkeeper Brendan Dunn came off his line, but the ball squirted past to a wide-open Thomas, who touched it into the goal for his first of the season. The assist was the second of the season for Jones and the first of Koger’s W&M career.

Thomas had another dangerous opportunity for the Tribe in the 12th minute of play. He took the ball from VT defender along the right flank and out raced him down the right side. Despite a serve angle 12 yards from goal, the Charlottes-ville, Va., native hit a shot to the far post, but Dunn made the diving save. The ball spilled over, but no Tribe player could get to the rebound before the Hokie defense cleared it out of harms way.

A long throw-in in the18th minute gave Virginia Tech its first quality chance. The throw came from the right touchline and found its way through the defense to the middle of the box. Hokie midfielder Charlie Campbell got the end of the play, but his shot sailed well high of the frame.

The Tribe continued its threatening push early in the first half. The ball was play along the left end line to senior mid-fielder Doug Ernst, who centered a pass to freshman Nathaniel Baako. It deflected to Thomas, but his shot from 10 yards out was blocked by the Tech defense in the 20th minute.

Ernst nearly made it 2-0 less than a minute later as the Hokies could not get the ball out of the back. The Alexandria, Va., native corralled the ball on the left side of the field and ripped a shot from 25 yards out toward the near post. Dunn got a hand to the attempt, deflecting it off the post, before gathering the loose ball.

Midfielder James Gilson forced W&M goalkeeper Andrew McAdams to make his first save of the match in the 28th minute. Gilson gather the ball and dribbled through the midfield down the left flank. He hit a low curving ball toward the back post from 30 yards out, but it was smothered by the W&M netminder.

In the 31st minute, Baako sent a lovely lofting pass to set Koger free on a breakaway down the center of the pitch. It looked as though Koger could get on the end of it, but the VT keeper got there just in time to get a piece of the ball. It deflected far enough away from Koger to allow the Tech defense to clear the ball and stymie the chance.

Two minutes later, the Hokies nearly found the equalizer. Reserve striker Terry Boland slid a nice ball along the right side of the 18 to fellow frontrunner Stefan Hock. Hock touched the ball into the box before drilling a shot into the side netting from 15 yards out.

Baako rifled a shot just high and wide of the upper left corner of the Virginia Tech frame in the 40th minute. Jones sent a ball down the left sideline to Thomas, who lifted a nifty ball to Baako in the center of the field, 20 yards from goal. Baako one-touched the ball down before sending the shot toward the frame.

Two minutes from halftime, Gilson generated another dangerous chance for the Hokies with a run up the left side. He cut back to the center of the pitch, before sending a low lining shot toward the near post that was smothered by McAd-ams.

Like W&M had in the opening half of play, Virginia Tech pulled even with a goal less than three minutes into the sec-ond stanza. Off a corner kick, Gilson sent a service to the near post where midfielder Georg Zehender headed it off the far post and into the back of the net from 12 yards out.

Despite Virginia Tech garnering the majority of the possession of the next 25 minutes, the game settled into a stalemate with neither team putting much of a threat on the goal. McAdams kept the game at 1-1 with a sure-handed save in the 81st minute. Off another Hokie corner kick, defender Alexander Baden headed a ball toward the right post from 10 yards out, but McAdams was up to the task.

The Tribe rookie goalkeeper made another important save two minutes later. McAdams deflected a Scott Spangler shot from 10 yards out wide right of the W&M goal.

In the 88th minute, the Tribe narrowly missed finding the connection for a counter-attack game-winner. Koger pos-sessed the ball in the midfield, before drawing two defenders and sliding a pass to the left side of the 18-yard box. Jun-ior Doug McBride, who had made a nice run up the left flank, narrowly missed getting to it before second-half goal-keeping sub Markus Aigner made a sliding stab to knock the ball away.

Four minutes into the first overtime session, the ball was played to Ernst in the air at the top of the 18. He settled and tried to strike a left-footed attempt on goal, but could not get enough on the chance as it rolled to Aigner.

In the 97th minute, McAdams blocked a rocket off the foot of Spangler. The Hokie reserve’s shot from 25 yards out deflected wide of the net for a goal kick, but not before some anxious moments in which both forward Robert Edmans and Zehender came close to corralling the rebound inside the six yard box.

The College nearly used a corner kick midway through the second overtime period to find the game-winner. Sopho-more back Roger Bothe served the ball to the near post, where Thomas sent a shot toward the Hokie goal. Aigner blocked the ball down to the middle of the six-yard box, but W&M could not get to the rebound before Tech cleared it out.

With just 30 seconds remaining, VT used the same formula of a corner to come close to finding the game-winner. Off a corner kick, McAdams blocked Baden’s header, but the ball spilled over to Tech forward Patrick Nyakro. His shot to-ward the center of the net from eight yards out was cleared off the line by Ernst. Edmans gathered the rebound for Tech and lifted a shot over the crowd in front, but it hit off the post. The ball deflected back off a Hokie and wide of the net, resulting in a goal kick and forging the eventual 1-1 draw.

McAdams turned in another stellar performance in goal, following up his 10-save performance against North Carolina by making seven saves in 110 minutes against Virginia Tech. Thomas led the Tribe with four shots, including three on goal.

The Tribe will return to action when its hosts former Colonial Athletic Association foe American (3-3-1) on Tuesday, Sept. 25. The contest is slated for a 7 p.m. start time at Albert-Daly Field. It will be the first meeting between the two schools since W&M recorded a 1-0 win over the Eagles at the Tribe Invitational in 2004.

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