University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Virginia
Carolina Wins Top 10 Battle With Virginia on Nogueira's Golden Goal
November 2, 2007 | Women's Soccer
Nov. 2, 2007
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The battle between a pair of Top 10-ranked women's soccer teams at Fetzer Field Friday night was more than worth the price of admission. Before 3,783 delirious fans, No. 4 North Carolina defeated No. 6 Virginia 1-0 on a golden goal by sophomore Casey Nogueira with 30 seconds left in the first overtime period.
The game had everything a soccer fan could want -- brilliant defense on both sides, a host of dangerous opportunities in the penalty areas for both squads, shots that were denied by crossbars and posts, stellar goalkeeping from each team and 100 minutes of well-played soccer.
With the win the Tar Heels ended the season on an eight-match winning streak and they will go into the ACC Tournament next Wednesday in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., as the No. 1 seed. Coach Anson Dorrance's charges are 15-3 overall and 9-1 in the ACC. Remarkably, the Tar Heels have gone 4-0 in ACC overtime games this campaign,, including three on the road. The Tar Heels finished 6-1 in their ACC schedule in game decided by one goal.
Virginia, which was ranked No. 3 in the nation last week, ended its regular season in tough luck, losing at Boston College in the 88th minute last Sunday and Carolina in overtime Friday. The Cavaliers are now 11-3-4 overall and 5-2-3 in the ACC.
As has happened often this year the winning goal for the Tar Heels came off the foot of sophomore striker Casey Nogueira who tallied her 11th goal of the season and fourth game-winning tally. In the last minute of the first overtime period, the Tar Heels were able to win a header in the midfield off a goal kick by Virginia goalkeeper Chantel Jones, who leads the nation in goals against average. Sophomore forward Nikki Washington, with her back to the goal, pounced on the ball and pivoted to the right to get past her defender. A couple of steps later he threaded a pass to a streaking Nogueira coming down the right side. Nogueira dribbled into the box as Jones came out to challenge her. Nogueira then calmly shot the ball with the inside of her right boot and the pace on the ball lifted it past Jones and into the far left side of the net.
Both teams had some great opportunities to score in the game that had several chances to end in regulation time. Carolina outshot Virginia 15-9 and both teams had six goalkeeper saves with Jones going all 99 plus minutes for Virginia and UNC's Anna Rodenbough and Ashlyn Harris switching at halftime.
Virginia had a good chance to open the scoring at 6:51 as Jen Redmond's free kick from the right side forced Rodenbough to retreat to her line where she plucked it out of the air just in time. At 12:08 of the match, Carolina's Whitney Engen carried the ball into the box for a one-on-one opportunity behind the defense but was stuffed by Jones.
Less than four minutes later, Washington gathered a loose ball in the box and sent it far post, only to have the shot meet metal and bounce away. Within a minute later, Virginia almost claimed the lead as Shannon Foley won a ball in the box and sent it off the crossbar. The rebound went to Meghan Lenczyk but Rodenbough was able to grab the her effort to score of the air. Rodenbough had to make two more stops on shots by Foley before the end of the half as Carolina had four saves to three for Virginia while the Heels led in shots 7-5.
In the second half, there was end-to-end action and a lot of dangerous opportunities for both sides on balls that bounced around penalty areas, but the two teams combined to actually get off only seven shots. Virginia committed a foul on Whitney Engen at 81:48 just a yard outside of the box but Nogueira's free kick sailed high. At 83:37, Kelly Quinn had a brilliant opportunity to win the game for the Cavaliers as she took a cross and one-timed the ball at the six-yard line in the center of the box. But Harris was able to smother it just in the nick of time diving to her right. In the 87th minute UNC had another free kick in an opportune area just outside the box but Averbuch's strike went high.
Nogeuria took all three shots in overtime for UNC and the third one was the charm. However, it might never have gotten to that point had Harris not made the save of the night on a shot by Foley at 96:05. Foley got behind the defense and went into the left side of the box unmarked. She sent a scorcher far post but Harris dove, grabbed the bal cleaney and kept the match tied at zero.
The save helped set up the heroics of Nogueira and Washington a little over three minutes later as Carolina celebrated senior night for Jessica Maxwell, Robyn Gayle, Ariel Harris, Katie Brooks, Jaime Gilbert and Julie Yates who all played their final regular season home match at Fetzer Field.
