Samy Kolby’s Brace Paces Hokies Men’s Soccer In 4-0 Win Over North Florida

Samy Kolby scored two goals for the Hokies in their season-opening win vs. North Florida on Thursday. (Virginia Tech athletics)

Samy Kolby’s brace kicked off the season for the Hokies in their 4-0 win over North Florida on Thursday at Thompson Field. It’s the most goals Virginia Tech has scored in a season opener since joining the ACC in 2004.

“You can’t ask for a better start,” Kolby told Tech Sideline after the game. “Obviously, we built on some stuff in the spring and then came out looking really good in preseason, so I’m not surprised with the start. I mean, we’ve got to go out and do it, but to get it done feels great.

“I think the system here really favors us scoring more goals from all areas of the pitch. It’s an exciting way to play. It’s solid defensively, but we can really get numbers forward and attack well, so it’s good to see it work out.”

Kolby broke the deadlock in the 34th minute when he received a pass, took a touch and ripped a left-footed shot from outside the 18-yard box. It was an absolute rocket — a familiar one after he struck a similar shot in Tuesday’s practice — that sailed into the top-left corner. Ospreys (0-1) goalkeeper Luciano Natoli didn’t stand a chance.

Seven minutes later, he gave Virginia Tech (1-0) a cushion it didn’t relinquish. The Charlotte transfer, who had just two goals for the 49ers last season, wriggled through defenders and fired another shot with his left, pulling it across goal and away from the diving keeper.

After a back-and-forth first 30 minutes, which featured a few dangerous moments — Hokies goalkeeper Cooper Wenzel was forced to make a point-blank save two minutes in — Kolby turned the game on its head. Tech took a 2-0 lead into halftime and put North Florida away in the second half.

“He stepped up big tonight,” captain Carter Hensley said of Kolby. “He’s been playing on the right wing … and then [we] put him in the middle and he produced a big goal for us, really knocked our jitters off.”

The Hokies kept a clean sheet in part due to Wenzel’s impressive play in goal. The senior transferred to Blacksburg from CSUN, where he was an All-Big West pick in 2022 and started 37 games over four seasons. He was called to action four times against the Ospreys, including once in the dying seconds, and kept the ball out of the net.

“I love the shutout,” Tech head coach Mike Brizendine said. “It’s an emphasis for us to keep clean sheets. We had it in one of our scrimmages, we just had this one and I want to build off that momentum. We haven’t had many of those the last couple of years and I want to just continue to build and solidify our defense and tighten up a little bit. They got close a couple times.

“… [Cooper] is a seasoned veteran. He’s seen a ton of shots, a ton of minutes. He’s played in a lot of college soccer games. He is very comfortable back there, and you saw the performance — it was outstanding.”

Tech put the nail in the coffin right after halftime. Saint Louis transfer CJ Coppola tacked a third goal on in the 48th minute, capping a solid spell of possession. Carter Hensley won the ball in midfield and sprung Alex Perez, who found Coppola at the top of the box. He cut across the defender and slotted it across goal.

“That’s what we preached at halftime: It’s a 2-0 lead and the next goal is going to decide the game,” Hensley said. “We knew we didn’t want to take our foot off the gas, we couldn’t start slow. … Getting one two-and-a-half minutes in is huge for us because we know that [with] three, we can kind of see out and finish the game.”

The Hokies won a free kick on the edge of the box five minutes later, which Noe Uwimana stepped up and buried. An All-ACC freshman-team pick last season with two goals and three assists, he whipped the ball around the wall and into the side netting to open up his 2024 campaign.

It was a productive way to start the season for Virginia Tech, who notched its first season-opening victory at home since 1996 (2-1 vs. Radford). After last year’s 0-2-3 record through five games, a positive opener was a welcome one. Tech’s first win in 2023 came in mid-September at No. 5 Louisville.

Hensley and the Hokies said they wanted to start this season fast, and they did so, especially after good results in tune-ups against West Virginia, the preseason No. 3 team in the country, and Liberty.

“We’re just happy for the win,” Hensley said. “… We’ll enjoy this today, talk about it tomorrow and see what we need to fix, but we’re going to put it in the past, we’re going to focus on the next game and that’s kind of how we’re going to approach this year.”

Tech is back at home on Tuesday vs. UNC Asheville (6 p.m. ET) with a chance to start 2-0 for the first time since 2019.

Hokies’ Starting XI: Wenzel; Uwimana, Stephensen, Gardiner, Cardona; Yohannes, Hensley, Perez; Roche, Sullins, Kolby

Box Score: Virginia Tech 4, North Florida 0 

2 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. Nice goal, regardless of whom you’re playing, being able to place it in the upper left corner of a goal from a distance is a pretty good skill to have

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