no. 5 hokies cruise past davidson in dominant performance

Ishan Lamba

Staff Writer

October 12, 2021

BLACKSBURG — No. 5 Virginia Tech continued its perfect home record this season, moving to 5-0-0 following an emphatic 4-0 victory over the Davidson Wildcats.

The Hokies (8-1-3, 3-1-1 ACC), sporting their brand new “Maroon Hokie Stone” kits, were coming off a dominant win over Louisville last Friday, while the Wildcats (7-5-1, 2-2-1 A-10) were shut out for the fourth time this season.

VT was off from the opening whistle, attacking Davidson goalkeeper Michael Zemanek from all angles. Zemanek turned away two shots from forward Nick Blacklock and midfielder Andrew Weber and needed assistance from his lead defender Stefane Zemmali to stop a Jacob Labovitz chance that got between his legs, all within the first 10 minutes.

It wouldn’t take much longer for the Hokies to break through, courtesy of Conor Pugh. The Irishman was on the receiving end of a Blacklock cross in the 16^th minute, rising above defenders to head it into the back of the net.

Following the goal, the action cooled significantly, as both teams experienced a noticeable lack of energy. Davidson settled into a five-back strategy, rarely seen in soccer.

“We got to get a lot of possession which was good and we switched the ball from side to side, which is what we like to do,” Pugh said of the defensive shift. “It took us a while but once we got our system going, we were balling out.”

It started to really get going in the 32^nd minute, when a seemingly innocent Tyler Taber pass to Pol Monells turned golden for the Hokies, as Monells’ shot took a deflection off a defender and soared over the leaping Zemanek to double the lead.

The dominance would extend into the second half, as Labovitz took an open shot on Zemanek. While the shot was deflected away, Pugh would clean up the rebound for a 58^th minute brace.

“It was obviously great to get the two goals… great to see the hard work pay off,” Pugh said of his performance.

With the third goal, the Hokies were content to play out the remainder of the time and preserve the clean sheet.

Davidson, still hungry, continued searching for a goal. However, stout VT defense and a few unlucky bounces killed any optimism the Wildcats may have had.

Sivert Haugli would put the icing on the cake, tacking on an 88^th minute penalty shot to bring the final tally to 4-0.

The Hokies are now unbeaten in seven consecutive games, and Martino recorded his third consecutive clean sheet, an accomplishment that put a smile on head coach Brizendine’s face.

“It feels great because that’s a really good Davidson team,” Brizendine said after the game. “When we were scouting them, we knew we were gonna have our work cut out for us, so to hold them to zero goals, I’m very happy with that.”

The four-goal victory was the largest margin of victory for the Hokies all season and matched their best offensive performance of the season the game before against Louisville.

Brizendine is optimistic about his team’s offensive and defensive units clicking at the right time.

“I think it’s tremendous, especially having three difficult ACC games left, and we play two of those away,” Brizendine noted. “It’s a good time to find our form because we’re going to test our mettle here and a lot will be determined in the next 10-12 days about our future.”

Regardless of future performances, tonight’s performance was certainly a great addition to an already impressive resumé that has contributed to the Hokies’ top-5 ranking. However, both players and coaches realize that there is still work to be done.

“We’re excited, we wanna play the best teams we can, and the conference games are always tough so I’m looking forward to that,” Pugh said.

“I look forward to hopefully climbing from the No. 5 spot, further up if possible,” Haugli added.

“We talk about maintaining a standard and they have future goals,” Brizendine said. “Those rankings mean nothing, we get no hardware for that. We want to win championships, we want to get a bye in the ACC tournament first round, we want to be a seeded team in the NCAA tournament. Those are our goals.”

“It does make my job and the staff’s job a little harder because the target keeps getting bigger. Everyone wants to come in here and beat the No. 5 team. I’m glad, in the maturity aspect, that we can respond the way we did.”