BOX SCORE

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – After four early goals from Virginia's Will Bates, Radford battled back with three unanswered scores before falling to the Cavaliers, 4-3, in non-conference men's soccer action Tuesday evening at Klöckner Stadium.

Each of Bates' goals came in the first 20 minutes of action.

"After a nine-day break and Virginia's last two results, we were very concerned about the first 15 minutes of this game, which turned out to be the difference," said Radford (3-3-0) head coach Marc Reeves.
 
Despite the setback, the Highlanders outshot the Cavaliers, 22-11, including a 13-3 advantage after intermission.
 
Bates' gave the Cavaliers an early 2-0 lead with strikes off through balls from Eric Bird and Calvin Rezende in the fourth and sixth minute, respectively.

After putting away a 16^th minute free kick from just outside the box for his second career hat trick, Bates extended Virginia's (5-3-0) lead to 4-0 on a header.

"Virginia is an exceptionally talented and well-coached team and you cannot make the kind of errors we did early on, as players of Bates' quality punish mistakes."
 
Just prior to the break, senior Iyiola Awosika (London, England / Aylesbury Grammar) put the Highlanders on the board when he converted a 39^th minute penalty kick.
 
Early in the second half, Radford picked up the pace and threatened with a number of scoring opportunities, including a Chel Ho Kim Park (Santander, Spain) shot that was blocked and Brian Gwanzura (Harare, Zimbabwe / Harare) header which sailed wide.
 
In the 60^th minute, Awosika got free on a breakaway and put away a Dario Redondo (Woodbridge, Va. / Garfield) feed into the bottom corner of net to make it a two-goal contest.
 
Less than two minutes after Awosika's second goal of the night, Luis Grande (Caracas, Venezuela / U.E. Colegio Los Arcos) cut the deficit to 4-3 when he scored off a deflection from six-yards out.

"We are very proud of our groups determination to keep playing and fight to get back into this game. We had an exceptional second half that could have easily seen us tie or win this match."
 
With under six minutes to play, Kim Park had a pair of equalizing chances, including an attempt from midfield that caromed off the cross bar.
 
Awosika and Gwanzura also had headers for the Highlanders late in the contest that were saved by Spencer LaCivita, who finished with a game-high seven stops for UVa.
 
In addition to controlling the shot column, Radford finished with a 5-0 difference in corner kicks.

"We have to learn from this as we once again played well against a top-level program and got nothing from it."
 
Tonight's meeting between the Cavaliers and Highlanders was their first since the 1993 season.
 
After beginning the 2011 slate with six straight on the road, Radford will host Elon in its home opener Saturday evening at 6 p.m.

"We must recover, re-group and prepare harder for our next really tough opponent and important home opener," said Reeves.