Aug. 28, 2010
Box Score
The George men's soccer team played its final exhibition match of the 2010 preseason on Saturday night and a crowd of 1,990 came out to see the Patriots host Virginia. The Cavaliers, who won their sixth national title last season, enter this year ranked No. 2 in the country. Mason dominated the first half, taking a one-goal lead into the break, but Virginia was the aggressor in the second half, and the result was a 2-1 Cavaliers' victory.
Three times in the first half Taylor Morgan brought the crowd to its feet. In the first 10 minutes, he had a 1v1 with Virginia keeper Diego Restrepo, but Restrepo beat him to the ball. In the 13th minute, he broke away on the left wing, but his shot was just wide to the right. In the 30th minute, the 6-foot-5 sophomore from Southampton, England created for his teammates and this time, Mason put the ball in net.
Morgan got lose on the left side and found Derek Markheim in front of the net. The sophomore from Manassas shot the ball from inside 10 yards only to see Restrepo stop the ball but the rebound went right to Parker Walton who put the ball into the empty net. It was the fourth goal of the preseason for the senior from Powhatan who had a hat trick on Tuesday against Wright State.
Virginia was able to score the equalizer in the match's 58th minute. Ari Dimas took a pass from Brian Span on the right side and he pinpointed the ball into the top left corner of the net to make it a 1-1 contest with one-third of the match remaining.
The Cavaliers were able to take the lead in the 73rd minute when Dimas found Will Bates deep on the right side and the sophomore from Chester headed the ball into the goal, again going top left. Mason had a fabulous shot to tie the game in the 77th minute off a Virginia foul just outside the box, but Eber Martinez' shot was wide and Martinez' ensuing corner kick was stopped by Restrepo. Mason had several direct kicks in the final two minutes but the Virginia defense stifled each.
Restrepo finished with seven saves while Dustin Butcher had four for Mason. The Patriots outshot Virginia, 17-15 and had an 8-7 shots on goal edge. Fouls were even at 11-11 and Mason had two more corners and two more offsides than Virginia.
The Patriots will open the regular season on Wednesday when they play at George Washington at 2 p.m. in the D.C. College Cup.
