Wild Friday night fixture sees Tech upset No. 16 Irish with five second half goalsWild Friday night fixture sees Tech upset No. 16 Irish with five second half goals
Men's Soccer

Wild Friday night fixture sees Tech upset No. 16 Irish with five second half goals

Down 2-0 at halftime, the Virginia Tech men's soccer team regrouped and on a cold, damp night in South Bend, Indiana, came out of the locker room firing, scoring within the first 20 seconds of the second half and never letting up, ending the night with a 5-2 victory and three league points in hand. The win takes the Hokies to 9-4-2 (3-3-1) and up to fifth position in the league table, jumping the Irish as the league schedule comes to a close and teams jockey for seeding for the postseason.
 
The loss drops the sixteenth-ranked Irish to 8-5-1 (3-3) on the season. 
 
Notre Dame started on the front foot, taking the lead through Ian Ascheris who latched onto a loose ball in the box after a corner kick was swung in. The forward dispatched his finish past Mathijs Swaneveld to give the Fighting Irish a lead inside of two minutes. 
 
For the most part, the rest of the first period was the same, with the Irish taking 16 shots on goal to the Hokies two. In the 28thminute, the Irish's advantage doubled as Aiden McFadden slipped a through ball on the left side of the box to Thomas Ueland who used his left foot to good effect, finding room at the near post to sneak his shot into the net. 
 
But it was truly a tale of two halves as a different Tech team stepped onto the field, following the team talk in the locker room. 
 
Forward Nico Quashie played Kristo Strickler in behind the defense and the sophomore did the rest finding the net 20 seconds into the second period and cutting the deficit in half. 
 


 
Five minutes on, the game was level again as Brendan Moyers scored his second of the season, completing the move as James Kasak crossed the ball from the left side which was deflected before falling to the feet of the midfielder who slotted home the equalizer.
 


 
The match winner was something special from Strickler, the club's leading scorer, now with eight tallies on the season after a brace Friday. The forward from Hilliard, Ohio found room on the left side of the box and David Sanz's flick found his right boot as he picked out a curled effort at the back post beating the keeper Ryan Krutz. 
 


 
 Additional goals by Nickal Clarke-Smith and Moyers' second sealed all three points as the Hokies continued their hot goal scoring form, with Friday's contest servinf as the third consecutive match that the Hokies have scored three or more times.
 
It was the first time all season that the Irish had given up more than three tallies in a night.
 
The Irish held an advantage in shots at 22-8 until the final whistle and the teams were tied with eight corner kicks each.
 
In goal, Krutz was credited with one save and Swaneveld made three on the night for the Hokies. 
 
Next up:The Hokies step out of conference one final time when they face the Davidson Wildcats on Tuesday, Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. 
 
Tech then plays host to the No. 14 Duke Blue Devils in the final contest of the regular season on Friday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. on ACC Network Extra. That match will serve as Senior Day for Rory Slevin a four-year member of the program and Arion Sobers-Assue a grad transfer who has spent the last semester with the Hokies' soccer program.