Marshall Men’s Soccer Recap
By: Max Chaffin, FM88 Sports
HUNTINGTON, W. Va. (WMUL-FM) – Marshall senior forward Carl Romberg had many chances throughout the game to score a big goal, but he delivered when it mattered most.
Romberg was on a breakaway from the Eastern Illinois defense when he received an across the field pass from Joao Carvalho, Romberg dribbled to his right foot to evade Eastern Illinois defender Andre Ecker and shot the winning goal past keeper Kai Odagiri to give the Herd a lead against the Panthers in the final 4 minutes of the contest.
The Thundering Herd (4-1-2) took on the Eastern Illinois University Panthers (1-4-2) in the final home non-conference matchup for the Herd.
The game stayed at a stalemate for the first 40 minutes of the game, until Marshall freshman forward Joshua Nugent scored the first goal of the game after Odagiri left an open net while trying to catch the ball off a previous shot from the Herd.
Marshall played stellar defense throughout the contest, but in the 60th minute, EIU midfielder Bernardo Hanel delivered a pass across the pitch to find the open forward, Keidin Green, who put the ball in the bottom right of the net past Marshall goalkeeper Yurji Obert.
The Herd had seven shots on goal during the contest, while Eastern Illinois only had 3 shots on goal. Marshall committed 11 fouls throughout as they played an aggressive defensive approach throughout the contest.
Yurji Obert had two saves on the game, one of them being a save with his legs rather than his hands.
Marshall controlled much of the contest, but the score showed a totally different result than the stats. Marshall head coach Chris Grassie knows that they need to do to have a chance against the mountaineers. “It’ll be a tough matchup as always. We’ll have to be at our best.”
The game stayed competitive throughout and the Herd are looking to step it up before the Mountain State Derby on Sunday as Marshall continues conference play. The Herd is looking to defend homefield against the Mountaineers where in their last meeting in Morgantown during the Sun Belt Conference tournament, Marshall defeated WVU 3-2 in double overtime.
The game is scheduled for September 27th, with kickoff beginning at 7:15 p.m. FM88 Sports’ Rhys Owens and Owen James will have the call on FM 88.1 WMUL-FM and www.marshall.edu/wmul on Stream 1.