Virginia rolls past Bucknell

Way back in the preseason, Virginia lost three exhibition games to lesser opponents — and didn’t look very good in the process. Those performances had the fan base a tad concerned.
Man, that seems likes ages ago.
On Sunday afternoon at Klockner Stadium, the No. 2-seeded Virginia men’s soccer team, fresh off an ACC tournament championship, kept rolling — in a big way.
Virginia, behind a hat trick from freshman Will Bates, a goal and two assists from Tony Tchani, and yet another stellar performance by its defense, hammered Bucknell, 5-0, in front of a crowd of 2,279 at Klockner Stadium.
“Sometimes in the NCAA tournament, that first game is the one you have to get under your belt,” said Virginia coach George Gelnovatch, whose team earned a first-round bye. “Just to get a win is great, but in the fashion that we did — that’s as many goals as we’ve scored in a game all year — we’re flowing with confidence coming off the ACC tournament.
“I told our guys, ‘Great result.’ We’re going to put this one behind us and get ready for the next one now.”
With the victory, Virginia advanced to the third round of the NCAA tournament. UVa will face Portland on Sunday. Portland defeated N.C. State, 2-1, in another second-round match on Sunday in Raleigh.
Virginia and Portland played in Portland back on Sept. 4. UVa won, 3-0, to notch its first win of the season.
Virginia (15-3-3) jumped all over Bucknell from the opening whistle. UVa never gave the Patriot League champion the slightest bit of hope.
Just over seven minutes into the game, Bates took a through ball from Tchani and beat Bucknell goalie Tommy Caso.
“It was very important,” Bates said. “If we score early, it kind of knocks them back a little bit. It’s hard to play when you go down 1-0 early.
“The longer a team stays in the game, the harder it is, so that one definitely helped us relax.”
In the 28th minute, Hunter Jumper took a pass from Tchani near the top of the 18 and rifled a shot past Caso to the near post for a 2-0 lead.
Just over two minutes later, Tchani scored on a penalty kick to make it 3-0.
Then, for good measure, Bates added another goal in the 37th minute to give Virginia a commanding 4-0 lead heading into the locker room.
Bucknell (17-6) couldn’t generate many scoring chances. On the rare occasions that they did, the Bison were stymied by Virginia goalie Diego Restrepo (five saves).
The transfer from South Florida broke the school record for most minutes played without allowing a goal. The mark (891 minutes) had been set by Tony Meola in 1988.
“Tony Meola, I remember him from when I was a kid,” Restrepo said. “I wanted to be Tony Meola. It’s a great honor to be able to go above him, but it’s because of the team in front of me.”
UVa hasn’t allowed a goal in five weeks — a span of nine games.
“It’s just communication,” Restrepo said. “We’ve just been communicating so well with each other. Everybody knows what they’re going to do and stays compact.”
Early in the second half, Bates scored his third goal of the game off a pass from Jumper.
“I don’t think this was a 5-0 game if you play it again, to be honest with you,” Gelnovatch said. “I was a little surprised that they came out so toe-to-toe with us.
“It probably caught us a little off-guard.”
It certainly didn’t seem like it.
Bucknell coach Brendan Nash, whose team lost to Virginia in the NCAA tournament back in 2006, said he was disappointed with the way the game turned out.
“We’d like to wish UVa the best of luck,” Nash said. “In 2006, maybe we were the good luck charm because they went to the Final Four then.
“Virginia did a great job of finishing today and their goalkeeper made some great saves.”