Boston College men’s soccer has held ACC opponents to one goal in three matches so far this season, including then-No. 20 Syracuse and No. 5 Clemson.
But each time, the Eagles have fallen short, either tying or losing to their conference opponents despite pinning them down defensively. BC (3–4–5, 0–4–2) continued searching for its first ACC win against Virginia (5–4–3, 2–2–2), but to no avail. Once again, holding their opponent to a goal did not hold up for the Eagles, as they lost the matchup 1–0 to keep them winless in the ACC and allow another chance at a win to slip.
The Eagles’ last win came Sept. 17 against Siena.
Neither team could muster a shot on goal until Christian Bejar did so at the 12:50 mark. But the most significant action of the first twenty minutes came when Marco Dos Santos picked up a red card after a kick to the head of a Virginia player, forcing the Eagles to play a man down for the remainder of the game.
Despite outshooting the Eagles 5–0 through the rest of the first half and playing at an advantage, Virginia was unable to come up with a goal.
Through the first 30 minutes of the second half, the Eagles racked up six penalties and no shots. The Cavaliers, meanwhile, gathered four shots—none of which were on goal. Finally, though, at the 78:00 mark, Virginia finally found a way when Nick Dang scored off an assist from Daniel Mangarov.
Dang’s goal was only awarded to the Cavaliers after review by officials.
After that, chaos ensued. Immediate yellow cards on Michael Asare and Ask Ekeland started off what turned out to be a string of penalties for BC.
With less than three minutes left in the game, BC goalkeeper Brennan Klein received a yellow card for unsportsmanlike conduct. Following in a similar fashion, Asare received a red card for unsportsmanlike conduct, and was ejected from the game.
On a final-minute, last-hope shot from Xavier O’Neil, BC appeared to have scored. But it was declared a no goal by officials.
Klein took a hard hit from a Virginia player, and a fight erupted on the field in a tense show of frustration from the Eagles as they picked up another conference loss.
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