Virginia notched its first win of the season, getting goals from four different players in a dominant 4-0 win over American on Friday night at Klöckner Stadium.
AJ Smith matched a career-high in points with one goal and one assist, while Prince Abanfo and Chase Duke both contributed toward scores in their first career starts.
“If you count preseason games, this was our sixth game, and we’ve played well in every one of them. Today we just tightened up a few things, we made a few adjustments to the defensive piece of things and put a complete performance together,” head coach George Gelnovatch said.
Smith got UVA (1-2-0) on the board at the 17-minute mark, on an assist from Brendan Lambe, then, three minutes later, Smith and Duke contributed to a goal from Abanfo from inside the penalty area to push the lead to 2-0.
Virginia added to its lead minutes before halftime when a shot from Luke Burns took a deflection from Sebastian Pop and trickled over the line.
The Cavaliers outshot American by a margin of 8-2 in the second half and added a fourth goal after Burns drew a foul in the box to earn a Virginia penalty. Marco Dos Santos stepped up and delivered from the spot.
Goalkeeper Spencer Sanderson preserved Virginia’s first clean sheet of the season as well as the first of Sanderson’s career.
“The coaches and the whole team wanted a reaction from the two losses, and the mindset was just to come into this game and be killers. I think the group did a really good job of that today and got the three points,” Smith said.
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Chris Graham
