Ubogu’s Career Night Lifts Virginia Men’s Soccer Past VCU 3-1

Freshman Kome Ubogu scored the first two goals of his UVA career and assisted on a third as the Cavaliers rallied in the second half to defeat the Rams on Tuesday night

Matt Newton | Sep 28, 2021

Photo courtesy of Catey Goodrum/Virginia Athletics Communications

The Virginia men’s soccer season was teetering on the edge of destruction beyond repair.

The Cavaliers had lost three games in a row and had not won a match since September 2nd, the second game of the season. With an overall record of 2-5-1 on the year and facing a 1-0 deficit with the clock ticking down at home against in-state opponent VCU, Thursday night’s match and the entire UVA men’s soccer season was looking quite bleak.

Enter Kome Ubogu.

The freshman from Hoover, Alabama had played just five games and attempted only one shot all season coming into this match.

Ubogu scored his first career goal as a Cavalier in the 69th minute to tie the game. Two minutes and 24 seconds later, he scored again to give Virginia the lead. In the 81st minute, Ubogu assisted on a Michael Tsicoulias goal to make it 3-1.

Behind Ubogu’s breakout (and heroic) performance, Virginia defeated VCU 3-1 at Klockner Stadium on Tuesday night, snapping a six-game streak without a victory.

The game was delayed nearly two hours due to inclement weather in Charlottesville. The match began at around 8:45pm and the conditions remained wet and rainy for most of the game.

VCU got on the board first in the 38th minute on a goal by Pablo Varela Fraga. VCU crossed the ball into the box from the left side, but it was deflected out by a UVA defender right to Fraga, who took a shot that was initially blocked by another sliding Virginia defender. Unfortunately, the ball went right back to Fraga who took another hard shot that went past Holden Brown into the bottom right corner of the net to give the Rams the lead.

Virginia took six shots in the first half, but only one of them went on goal, which was saved by VCU goalkeeper John Ermini. Both Ermini and Holden Brown had three saves in the match.

In the 69th minute, sophomore Chris Scheipe played a beautiful high-arcing cross from the left wing into the box where Kome Ubogu had gotten himself open between two defenders. Ubogu headed the ball from eight yards out and it bounced inside the left post for the equalizer and Ubogu’s first career goal at UVA.

It took less than three minutes for Ubogu to record his second goal. Freshman forward Ank Nibogora played a brilliant curving through ball to Ubogu, who cut behind the defense and sprinted to catch up with the ball, which was quickly approaching the goalkeeper Ermini, who came up to try to collect the ball before Ubogu could get to it. Ubogu and Ermini both slid towards the ball and Ubogu won the race by a split second, getting his foot on the ball to send it dribbling into the left corner of the cage for the game-winning goal.

1⃣st collegiate goal ➕ 1⃣st brace for Ubogu 🔥#GoHoos pic.twitter.com/vZkgLm4CZ4
— Virginia Men's Soccer (@UVAMenSoccer) September 29, 2021

For VCU, the game quickly turned from a huge road victory over an in-state rival to a devastating meltdown. To make matters worse, defenseman Zeron Sewell was called for a red card as he tackled a UVA player from behind as he broke away towards the goal.

Down to 10 players on the field and having lost all momentum in the game, VCU could not muster any solid opportunities for an equalizer.

Ubogu nearly scored a third goal in the 79th minute as he headed a shot that hit the left post.

In the 81st minute, Ubogu passed the ball to the middle of the field just outside the box to another freshman, forward Michael Tsicoulias, who dribbled to his left before taking a hard shot into the right corner of the goal to extend the Virginia lead to 3-1.

The first years showed out in this one, as each of the UVA goals were scored by freshmen.

Virginia outshot VCU 18-13 and UVA had six shots on goal to VCU’s four.

With the win, the Cavaliers improve to 3-5-1 on the season and will look to use this comeback victory to turn around their season. Virginia will next play at Notre Dame on Friday night at 6pm on the ACC Network.

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