As a member of the Virginia soccer team for three years, Yannick Reyering never missed a penalty kick.

Although Virginia inside linebacker Antonio Appleby had his right ankle heavily taped and dressed out for the game, junior Darren Childs got the first start of his career.

The players on the East Carolina field goal block team weren’t the only ones completely fooled by Virginia’s game-clinching fake midway through the fourth quarter.

Thanks to 28 second-half points, Duke pulled away to blast Virginia, 31-3, at Wallace Wade Stadium, giving the Blue Devils their first ACC win since Nov. 13, 2004 and their most lopsided league win in 18 years.
UVa vs. Duke forum thread.

When prep phenom Jonathan Villanueva first decided to forgo a professional soccer career in Europe and attend the University of Virginia, George Gelnovatch was practically doing cartwheels outside of Klockner Stadium.

The Cavaliers (0-1), at this point, would likely settle with merely flashing back to last season. After a disheartening loss last year at Wyoming in the opening game, the Cavaliers promptly won their next seven straight games and climbed into the national polls for the first time since 2005.

Reyering made his first kick, an extra point, and had two good kickoffs. The first wasn’t a thing of beauty, but it was only returned to the 13-yard line. The second, at the start of the second half, went five yards deep into the end zone, had nice hang time and resulted in a touchback.

In perhaps the biggest home opener in nearly a quarter of a century, the nation’s best football program over the past six years will bring a national spotlight to Charlottesville. While the oddsmakers and the naysayers don’t give Groh’s Cavaliers a snowball’s chance, don’t tell the Wahoos.

Last season was a disappointing one for the Virginia men’s soccer team. UVa finished 12-8-2 (1-5-2 in the ACC) and lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to West Virginia. That marked the program’s earliest exit from the Big Dance since 1996.

Virginia coach Al Groh announced the winner of a heated three-way battle for a starting spot in the Cavaliers’ season opener Aug. 30 against No. 3 Southern California. The position pegged, however, was not nearly as glamorous as the most anticipated battle up for grabs.

Yannick Reyering — who had exhausted his soccer eligibility — elected to give football a try after talking things over with Virginia soccer coach George Gelnovatch.

Despite having held just three practices, each of which was without full pads, Groh apparently was so tuned into the Cavaliers’ camp that he missed the latest development in the world’s most over-hyped sports drama.

Barker, a junior, joins senior left guard Eugene Monroe as the lone returning starters on one of the units in question heading into the new season. Former incumbents Branden Albert and Ian-Yates Cunningham, both guards, and center Jordy Lipsey must be replaced on assistant coach Dave Borbely’s offensive line.