Marshall Men’s Soccer Recap
By Anthony Doria, FM88 Sports
Sept. 15, 2025
HUNTINGTON, W. Va. (WMUL-FM)- After two straight games on the road, the Marshall Men’s Soccer Team returned to Hoops Family Field looking to get back into the win column after three straight draws and falling to 10th in the polls.
Both teams were desperate for a win as they both looked to end their lulls before the start of conference play.
The game would start off quickly as UCSB’s Buba Fofanah would have a great look from the left side of the goal in the third minute, but Dan Rose would hold his spot and make a great diving save to prevent the goal.
Marshall applied the pressure and was making the Gauchos play very tentative soccer. The first goal would come in the 24th minute as a corner kick would be headed in by the Russian Kirill Pakhomov to give Marshall a 1-nil advantage. Despite some good looks for the Herd, the score would still be the same at halftime.
The first 10 minutes of the second half were normal action, but that would all change in the 56th minute. After a foul, a yellow card was issued to USCB, which the Gauchos were not happy with, and it was made known. The end result being four yellow cards and two red cards, which ultimately would leave the Gauchos down a man for the rest of the game.
The Gauchos fought as hard as they could for 20 minutes, but the floodgates would eventually open.
Joao Roberto did not start the game for the Herd, but he sure made an impact when he did come in. He scored off a feed from Keaviano Francis in the 71st minute, making the score 2-nil. He was not finished yet, as 13 minutes later, a ricochet of the keeper would land perfectly at his boot, and Roberto would fire it in to put the game at 3-nil.
You would think that was the end of it, but Marshall would add another goal only 2 minutes later!
MoMo Diop would receive a pass, knife his way around tw0 defenders and punch it in the left corner of the net to bring the score to its final of 4-nil.
Marshall gets back into the win column and remains undefeated at 2-0-3, while UCSB falls to 2-4.
Marshall will be back in action at home Friday as the Herd begins Sun Belt Conference play against Coastal Carolina. First touch will be at 7:15 p.m.